There might be just over a week left of the circus that has been this year’s US Presidential election, but Hillary Clinton is facing an uphill battle.
But this time it’s come from within her own camp, with the FBI reopening an investigation into her emails once more, particularly those linked to her right hand woman’s estranged husband, one Anthony Weiner.
The disgraced former congressman and New York mayoral candidate has been embroiled in several sexting scandals.
The first involved a lewd photograph accidentally posted to his Twitter account in 2011, while Abedin was pregnant with the couple’s son Jordan. At the time, Weiner was a Democratic congressman in New York.
The scandal cost him his career, forcing him to resign in the weeks after the image was posted. He checked in to therapy and announced he would become a stay-at-home dad to Jordan, while Abedin’s career with Clinton – which began when she was an intern to the First Lady in the ‘90s – kicked into overdrive.
But Weiner-gate was not over. Recently he was caught sexting …. with his five-year-old son asleep in the image.
This week it has been revealed that the FBI was reviewing a cache of questionable emails found on an iPad, phone and laptop shared by Weiner and Abedin. Previously, Abedin had sworn under oath that she had handed over all electronic devices and printouts from the Clinton state department email sever to the relevant authorities. On Sunday, a team seized these new devices in question and began the process of sifting through the emails, CBS reports.
All of this comes less than a fortnight until the election, in what is usually deemed ‘crunch time’ for the Clinton campaign (a technical term).
Earlier this year, the FBI revealed that Clinton had been “extremely careless” in the use of her email server, yet ultimately unimpeachable. However, in declaring that Weiner and Abedin’s use of the Clinton server was “pertinent to the investigation”, the FBI is exhuming this email scandal that refuses to die.
Weiner himself is currently under investigation by the FBI for sending explicit missives to a 15-year-old girl.
“Oh God,” was Vice-President Joe Biden’s response, speaking to CNN on the weekend. “I should not comment on Anthony Weiner. I’m not a big fan. I wasn’t before he got in trouble.”