by WorldTribune Staff, November 2, 2016

Huma Abedin has a track record of handling classified information, a major reason the FBI is looking at hundreds of thousands of emails from a laptop she shared with now-estranged husband Anthony Weiner.

That computer, and the sheer volume of emails it contains, is at the center of a political firestorm that has consumed her boss, Hillary Clinton, in the final week before the 2016 presidential election.

The discovery of more than 600,000 emails on the computer came after Abedin had been questioned on April 5 by FBI agents and Justice Department officials, including those handling counterintelligence issues.

Of the emails Clinton previously turned over to the State Department, nearly 5,000 were sent to, or received from Abedin, according to earlier reports. More than 180 of those contain information now determined to be “confidential,” and one message contained “secret” information about a 2009 ballistic missile test by North Korea.

“It is frankly remarkable that the FBI and Justice Department are only now investigating Abedin’s connection to Clinton’s mishandling of classified information,” said Tom Fitton, president of the watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Clinton insists there is nothing to be found and has publicly denounced FBI Director James B. Comey for announcing less than two weeks before an election that he is looking at the new emails.

Abedin’s attorneys say the longtime Clinton aide was unaware that any of her messages were on Weiner’s computer.

“From the beginning, Ms. Abedin has complied fully and voluntarily with State Department and law enforcement requests, including sitting for hours-long interviews and providing her work-related and potentially work-related documents,” her attorney, Karen Dunn, said in a statement on Oct. 31. “She only learned for the first time on Friday, from press reports, of the possibility that a laptop belonging to Mr. Weiner could contain emails of hers.”

In addition to the investigation of Weiner, whose sex-related text messages may have been sent to a juvenile, the FBI also reportedly pushed this year to open public corruption probes of the Clinton Foundation, citing concern about rewarding donors with special political access and favors.

The Justice Department declined to investigate.

  2016 presidential election, Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin, Huma Abedin’s handling of classified information a key focus of new FBI investigation, WorldTribune.com