The FBI attained a search warrant Sunday to probe the newly discovered emails associated with Hillary Clinton’s email server that were found during an investigation of former congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop, law enforcement sources told NBC News.
The warrant became available to federal officials just two days after FBI director James Comey announced to Congress the existence of the emails, which were connected to Weiner’s estranged wife, senior Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
However, it appears unlikely that the agency will finish its work before the election. “The process has begun,” a federal law enforcement official told The New York Times.
Although New York FBI agents previously had a warrant to search the laptop co-owned by both Weiner and Abedin, it only applied to material from his alleged sexting with an underage North Carolina girl.
According to The Wall Street Journal, New York FBI agents investigating Weiner discovered the new emails and reported the existence of the thousands of new online communications to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
McCabe instructed the Clinton email investigators to meet with the Weiner investigators and find out if the laptop’s contents could be pertinent to the Clinton email investigation.
After both teams of investigators conferred with one another and agreed that the emails may be relevant to the Clinton case, Comey decided to go forward with the letter to Congress on Friday.