As we inch closer to the general election, the FBI is showing no signs of letting up on their investigation of Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, formal interviews are in the process of being set up with her aides—and even Clinton herself.
Federal prosecutors investigating the possible mishandling of classified materials on Hillary Clinton’s private email server have begun the process of setting up formal interviews with some of her longtime and closest aides, according to two people familiar with the probe, an indication that the inquiry is moving into its final phases.Those interviews and the final review of the case, however, could still take many weeks, all but guaranteeing that the investigation will continue to dog Clinton’s presidential campaign through most, if not all, of the remaining presidential primaries.
No dates have been set for questioning the advisors, but a federal prosecutor in recent weeks has called their lawyers to alert them that he would soon be doing so, the sources said. Prosecutors also are expected to seek an interview with Clinton herself, though the timing remains unclear.
Through the interviews the FBI will attempt to determine whether or not her aides knowingly or negligently discussed classified information over an unsecure email system.
Last month Judicial Watch released dozens of pages of State Department records showing that her top aides, Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan, both received and sent classified information on their non-government email accounts.
The fact that the FBI is getting ready to set up these interviews also means that they are nearing the end of their background work in the case.
“The interviews are critical to understand the volume of information they have accumulated,” James McJunkin, former head of the FBI's Washington field office, told the LA Times. “They are likely nearing the end of the investigation and the agents need to interview these people to put the information in context. They will then spend time aligning these statements with other information, emails, classified documents, etc., to determine whether there is a prosecutable case."
Whether Clinton will ultimately be indicted remains a hotly debated issue among pundits, although the former secretary of state is confident “it’s not going to happen.”
"I think that what we've got here is a case of over-classification," Clinton said at the CNN/Univision debate in Miami earlier this month.
"I'm not concerned about; I'm not worried about it, and no Democrat or American should be, either."
The problem for her, however, is that they are. Her ‘honest’ and ‘trustworthy’ numbers in polling are lower than ever, and it’s having a serious impact on her in some Democratic primaries.