Comey Vs Clinton: Implications For The US Presidential Elections 2016

Although the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) investigation on Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private server for classified information case as the Secretary of United States of America was closed, however, the recent statement made by FBI Director to Congress underscores the discovery of ‘new emails’ that are deemed significant especially in the backdrop of American Presidential Election, which are hardly a week away.

The news on the use of private email server by the former secretary (Mrs. Clinton) was published by the American news agency in March last year. Mrs. Clinton was accused of keeping classified information on her private server. This investigation mired Mrs. Clinton's campaign for becoming the nominee of the Democratic Party in the initial stages of the Election campaign. However, she was not accused of anything in spite of being labeled as 'careless' for her use of a private server by the director James Comey.

The so-called recently discovered emails are associated with Clinton's aide Huma Abedin husband who was a former congressman, Anthony Weiner. According to the FBI sources, the emails sent by Mr. Weiner to a teenage girl are being interrogated to see if the email contains an explicit inappropriate talk between them. Expectedly, the Mrs. Clinton campaign responded to the breaking news of the Election campaign by articulating concern over the timing of the FBI investigation, however, Mr. Trump appreciated the role of the FBI in bringing up the issue. Likewise, the FBI director came under the fire and attempted to justify his decision as misleading for the public if he hadn't made the inquiry into Mrs. Clinton emails public.

The release of information few days before the American polling day has raised serious apprehensions of analysts and the Mrs. Clinton supporters regarding the credibility of the institution. For some critics of Mr. Comey, he is supposed to be a vanguard of public interests and neutrality rather than taking sides or seeming biased. On the other hand, the Mrs. Clinton campaign manager has asked the FBI to provide complete information in order to make the uncertain political situation for the Clinton clear.

On the question of completion of the investigation, Director Comey has not given any concrete answer which could make it clear when the inquiry will be complete. Similarly, it is yet to be assessed by the FBI team if and how important are the new emails could be of importance for the investigation of Mrs. Clinton. This ambiguous part of Mr. Comey's statement is also criticized by the commentators and the Clinton supporters. As it is seen an 'intervention' by the Mrs. Clinton advocates. While Some believe that Mr. Comey may have overstepped a precedent on President Election sin form of deliberately choosing the timing of evidence revealed to the Congress and the American public.

In terms of estimating the fallout for Mrs. Clinton, some of the polls have shown a relative decline in Mrs. Clinton's lead over Mr. Trump. Furthermore, the seeds of doubts and skepticism have also been planted into the minds of Mrs. Clinton supporters or those who were on the verge of turning into a Mrs. Clinton supporter, it seems. That being said, most of the analysts are overlooking the facts that the early polling in some of the game-changing states had been completed. Therefore, it would be really hard to estimate the impact of the political development on the chances of Mrs. Clinton's win. Likewise, the Mrs. Clinton controversy has undoubtedly made a myriad of breaking news and provided Mr. Trump with an opportunity to make Mrs. Clinton's case weaker; however, it is not easy to conclude if it would contribute to increasing the chances of Mr. Trump's victory.