FBI Investigates New Clinton Emails Linked to NY Congressman Sexting Scandal

"We must stop Hillary Clinton taking her criminal scheme into the Oval Office" -  that was the reaction from Donald Trump during a rally on Friday, after it was announced that the Federal Bureau for Investigation will reopen its investigation into Clinton's handling of sensitive emails while she was US Secretary of State.

It seems new correspondence has come to light during a separate enquiry into the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide - but the Clinton campaign's criticised the timing of the announcement, just 11 days before voters go to the polls.

Here's our US correspondent Lorna Shaddick.

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Script:

SOT - Donald Trump, US Republican Presidential Nominee

This is bigger than Watergate. This is bigger than Watergate in my opinion.

Donald Trump's reaction to the news that the closed FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails may not be quite as closed as we thought.

Back in July, FBI Director James Comey said that Mrs Clinton hadn't broken the law by using a private server to handle government emails:

SOT - James Comey, FBI DIRECTOR

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

But then on Friday came a bombshell letter - sent to the heads of several Congressional committees. It says that while looking into another, unrelated, case, the agency had found about about more emails relevant to the investigation. So it wants to look to see if there was any classified information in them.  

It now appears that case was a probe into text messages sent by New York congressman Anthony Weiner to a 15 year old girl… Mr. Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, is a top aide to Mrs. Clinton.

The FBI say they don't know how long the investigation will take and on Friday the State Department scrambled to react to the news - here's its spokesman Mark Toner:

SOT - Mark Toner, US State Department Spokesman

We're trying to figure out what these e-mails even pertain, to whether they're relevant to her time as secretary of state. Can't make any assumptions at this point, that they are but they may be, as much as they are we'll certainly seek to work with the FBI if they ask us to.

The Clinton campaign says the American public should be given more information than is in that letter, and that it's 'extraordinary' to see such a development 11 days out from an election. But it added that this examination won't produce any conclusions from those reached in July.

Recorded at Trump Tower - Super: Lorna Shaddick, New York

This latest development has left the American electorate with more questions than answers - most importantly, when will the FBI make the results of this new investigation public? It seems unlikely to happen before the election - but you can bet the people here at Trump Tower will be making the most of every day of uncertainty and every moment their rival is in the spotlight of suspicion. And even if this doesn't move many people to move their vote from Clinton to Trump, it may well mean lots of Americans, fed up with yet more scandal, might just decide to stay at home on election day. Lorna Shaddick, New York.