Saturday 29 October 2016 8:16 am

Hillary Clinton demands FBI release information in fresh email probe “without delay”

Hillary Clinton has demanded the FBI "immediately" explain its review of a new batch of emails, that the agency said seemed to be pertinent to the previous investigation into her use of a private server.

The Democratic presidential nominee has called on the FBI director James Comey to explain the new inquiry to the American people. Earlier Comey had said the FBI was looking into newly discovered messages.

"The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately," Clinton said. "It's imperative that the bureau explain the issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay."

Clinton said she was "confident" the probe would not change its original findings and she should not be prosecuted.

Comey had sent a letter to several congressional leaders to inform them that the FBI had come across new emails and would take additional steps to look into them, adding that the FBI did not know yet if the emails were significant. He also said he didn't know when the review would finish.

In a statement, Clinton campaign manager John Podesta said: "Already, we have seen characterisations that the FBI is 'reopening' an investigation but Comey's words do not match the characterisation. Director Comey's letter refers to emails that have come to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the director himself notes they may not even be relevant."

He also criticised the timing. "It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election. The director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining."

The latest emails emerged during a different inquiry into Clinton aide Huma Abedin's estranged husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner. Devices belonging to both Abedin and Weiner were seized in an investigation into whether he sent sexually explicit emails to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.

In July, Comey announced the bureau had closed its investigation into Clinton's emails and recommended that prosecutors not seek charges, though he criticised Clinton and her aides for the "extremely careless" manner in which the emails were handled.

Clinton's Republican rival Donald Trump called the new development, "the biggest political scandal since Watergate", in reference to the 1970s incident involving Republican President Richard Nixon. "It's everybody's hope that justice at last can be delivered," he told supporters at a rally in Iowa.

Researchers at Amundi Research recently analysed the Republican presidential candidate's promises and how they'd impact on America, should he win. It didn't look good.

However, the researchers also assessed his chances of winning and then actually being able to enact all his promises at about one per cent.

Recent polls have had Trump trailing Clinton; one recent ABC News opinion poll had the Republican back by 12 points.