Clinton allies target Comey as probe scrambles campaign

Hillary Clinton's allies dramatically escalated attacks on FBI Director James Comey in a bid to stem political damage from his disclosure the agency is reviewing a new batch of files that may be related to an investigation of the former secretary of state's email practices.

Harry Reid, the Senate's top Democrat, delivered an unusual rebuke to the FBI chief in a letter on Sunday that said Comey may have broken the law by revealing the review so close to the election, and suggested the agency is sitting on potentially damaging information about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Reid's scorching letter - typical of the combative Nevadan's style - was one of the most confrontational messages being delivered by Clinton supporters, who took to talk shows, newspaper opinion pages and social media to question the propriety of Comey's disclosure.

Late Sunday, one Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, Steve Cohen of Tennessee, called for Comey's resignation. Judiciary is among congressional committees that oversee the FBI, and Cohen is the top Democrat on a subcommittee with jurisdiction over matters involving ethics in government.

The new probe led to a weekend of scrambling by both Clinton and Trump and put the US presidential race in uncharted territory. The two campaigns responded, for now, by falling back on the familiar. After hitting back at Comey on Friday and Saturday, Clinton moved on by Sunday to reiterating her campaign's themes, leaving the attacks on the FBI director to her proxies.

Trump reinvigorated his assault on Clinton's trustworthiness and found a new cue for his crowds to chant "lock her up" as he ramped up his pace of campaigning.

With millions of Americans already casting ballots for an election that concludes eight days from now, and polls showing the race had already been tightening, Clinton looked to the FBI review as a way to rally her Democratic base while Trump sought to sway undecided voters and Republicans who've been reluctant to back him.

Clinton didn't mention the investigation directly while campaigning in the battleground state of Florida on Sunday. Rather, she continued her attack on Trump being unfit and unqualified to be president, combined with a push for supporters to vote early. Still, in a veiled reference to events of recent days, she told her audience not to let "all the noise in the political environment'' distract from the important issues that will be decided on election day.

Bloomberg