Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.

By Britt Nelson

Clinton’s long-time personal aide, Huma Abedin, was hiding over the weekend, noticeably absent and out of view from accompanying Democrat Hillary Clinton on the presidential campaign trail. On Friday, Abedin became implicated along with her estranged husband Anthony Weiner in the FBI’s decision to reopen their investigation into Clinton’s secret and highly criticized controversial email system she kept at her home.

FBI investigators have reportedly found a whopping 650,000 emails on the laptop computer seized from Weiner that was shared with Abedin, according to The Wall Street Journal. On Sunday, the FBI obtained a necessary warrant to legally search the emails looking for improperly handled classified information tied to Abedin’s employment with Clinton during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state and afterwards.

With all of the negative political news in recent weeks, Clinton’s polling lead is shrinking. For instance, an ABC News poll that had Clinton ahead by 12 points earlier this month is now down to a one-point lead over Republican challenger Donald Trump. The polling dates indicate this poll was taken just before Friday’s bombshell announcement that the FBI was reopening their investigation into Clinton’s email practices.

On Monday, Real Clear Politics poll averaging showed Clinton’s national wide lead had shriveled to 2.4 percentage points.

Meanwhile, Trump is hammering Clinton on the FBI reopening her email probe at every opportunity along the campaign trail. Mainstream media outlets, often accused of bias toward Clinton, are heavily covering the new FBI-Clinton email investigation.

As in the FBI’s first Clinton email investigation, some of those recovered emails were deemed too sensitive even for the FBI to see. Perhaps these new Abedin emails also contain information too secret to share with the FBI. Is the FBI’s security clearance not high enough to see these state secrets found on Weiner’s laptop that Abedin had obviously stored there or did Weiner get access to Abedin’s and Clinton’s emails through learning the passwords into Clinton’s email server? The questions can go on and on like: Do these emails show collusion with Clinton, Abedin, the U.S. Department of State, former President Bill Clinton, and the Clinton Foundation in a “pay-to-play” scheme?

Weiner is reportedly cooperating with FBI investigators, according to news reports.

Abedin previously said she had turned over all of her devices, phones, etc., when she left the employment of the U.S. Department of State several years ago. It would be illegal – on a felony level — for her to have sent classified government information to herself or to her husband, or to possess classified information at their home on a shared laptop computer.

However, in a Washington Post story published over the weekend and reported on Fox News a close associate of Abedin, speaking on condition of anonymously, said Abedin has told others privately she has no idea how all those emails got on the laptop shared with Weiner. Abedin, in Clinton-like style, is already denying everything and admitting to nothing on this new FBI-email development.

Here’s some wild speculation to consider: What do you want to bet that those Abedin emails found on that laptop computer were there to be saved for a future book by Abedin or movie about her life with Clinton? If this assumption is correct, these emails could be the most revealing yet to come. Abedin or Weiner obviously held onto to these reportedly hundreds of thousands of emails for some reason, but why? Even after her boss was coming under intense fire about the private email system she kept in her home, countless leaked emails and the FBI investigation into them, Abedin must have accumulated these emails over time. She kept these emails to herself on her husband’s laptop, but why? No one is closer to Clinton than Abedin, who at some point in the future will most certainly write an account of her time with Clinton — that’s a given.

With Abedin’s story and her saving all this secret backup material with dates inking a multi-million-dollar book deal is a sure thing. Who knows?

FBI Chief James Comey is being challenged by Clinton to release the emails and show the evidence he has found leading to reopening the criminal case in light of the impending national general election Nov. 8. But Comey, by law, cannot release any direct evidence due to an ‘ongoing investigation status’ until that investigation has concluded, like in any ongoing criminal probe. He can only speak publicly in broad generalities about this new batch of Abedin emails discovered during an unrelated probe into Weiner’s sexting-with-a-15-year-old-girl problem. It will take time to go over hundreds-of-thousands of emails looking for classified information held illegally or mishandled. Clinton knows this; she is looking for wiggle room and plausible deniability while attempting to have some level of transparency during this public relations disaster.

Perhaps Comey spilled the beans about the new Abedin emails to keep the DOJ from tampering with the laptop so the emails in question will not have mysteriously disappeared all to protect Clinton and President Obama’s legacy. Who knows?

In sending that gutsy letter to Congress, Comey broke with DOJ rules and went against the advice of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, according to recent news reports. He took this bold action for a reason, but why?

Carl Bernstein, of Watergate fame and CNN political commentator put it this way during a weekend interview on CNN: “We don’t know what this means yet except that it’s a real bombshell. And it is unthinkable that the Director of the FBI would take this action lightly, that he would put this letter forth to the Congress of the United States saying there is more information out there about classified e-mails and call it to the attention of Congress unless it was something requiring serious investigation. So that’s where we are… .”

That’s where we are, indeed, and “that’s the way it is,” said the late CBS Evening News Anchor Walter Cronkite. Sometimes secrecy does not sleep for long.

 

About the Author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.