Donald Trump has resumed his refrain that the system is “rigged” while harshly criticizing the FBI for its conclusion in the renewed investigation of Hillary Clinton‘s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
FBI director James Comey announced Sunday that after reviewing newly discovered emails, they have reached the same conclusion that they had expressed in July when the case initially wrapped: that Clinton’s handling of the emails was “extremely careless” but “no charges were appropriate.”
The Republican presidential nominee, 70, responded to the news by questioning how the FBI could review the large amount of emails found in such a short time period and claiming that Clinton is “being protected by a rigged system.”
“You can’t review 650,000 new emails in eight days,” Trump said Sunday night in Sterling Heights, Michigan. “You can’t do it, folks.”
In the final days of the election, Trump’s campaign had been capitalizing on Comey’s announcement that the FBI would be taking “additional investigative steps” into Clinton’s email scandal after finding new emails on former congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop during a separate investigation. (The disgraced politician is the estranged husband of Clinton top aide Huma Abedin.)
The FBI’s conclusion didn’t change Trump’s argument that Clinton is “the most corrupt person ever to seek the office of the presidency of the United States.”
“The investigations into her crimes will go on for a long, long time,” he said. “The rank-and-file special agents of the FBI won’t let her get away with her terrible crimes.”
Trump also repeated his argument that the system is rigged: “Right now, she is being protected by a rigged system. It’s a totally rigged system.” (Earlier this month, just after the FBI announced its renewed investigation, Trump told a crowd in New Hampshire that the system “might not be as rigged as I thought.”)
“Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it. The FBI knows it. The people know it,” he said. “And now it’s up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box on Nov. 8.”
