This makes FBI Director Comey’s unprecedented actions look indefensible. Even now Comey is only guessing about the contents of those emails. He couldn’t have had enough information to take any action much less draft a deliberately ambiguous but ominous sounding letter, and take the drastic step of violating DOJ guidelines and sending it to the House GOP Scandal Czar Jason Chaffetz.
FBI doesn't have warrant to review new emails: reports
By Jesse Byrnes
The FBI did not have a search warrant Saturday to review newly obtained emails linked to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server.
FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to lawmakers Friday revealing the emails despite agents not having yet received a warrant to read them, Yahoo News reported.
Investigators still had not secured a warrant to review the emails as of Saturday night, Yahoo News reported. That echoed reporting from CBS News earlier Saturday.
One of the government officials quoted by Yahoo News said the FBI director "had no idea what was in the content of the emails" when he wrote the letter to lawmakers.
Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations pdf
Justice Dept. Strongly Discouraged Comey on Move in Clinton Email Case
By MATT APUZZO, ADAM GOLDMAN, MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM OCT. 29, 2016
...They do not know whether the emails contain classified information or, if they do, whether that would change their determination that nobody should be charged with mishandling it.
So Justice Department officials were surprised on Thursday afternoon to receive notice of Mr. Comey’s intention to send the letter to Congress. The letter, issued as early voting was underway in some states, guaranteed a new round of questions for Mrs. Clinton just before Election Day.
The Justice Department and the F.B.I. have a longstanding policy against discussing current criminal investigations. Another Justice Department policy, restated each election cycle, declares that politics should play no role in investigative decisions. Both Democratic and Republican administrations have interpreted that policy broadly to cover any steps that might give even an impression of partisanship.
“We must be particularly sensitive to safeguarding the department’s reputation for fairness, neutrality and nonpartisanship,” said a 2012 memo from the attorney general’s office that restated the policy.
Comey may have even violated the Hatch Act.