Hillary Clinton demands 'full and complete facts' of new FBI emails probe

The FBI announced it was looking into whether there was classified information on a device belonging to Anthony Weiner, the disgraced ex-congressman who is separated from long-time Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Mrs Clinton stepped in swiftly, holding a brief, hastily arranged news conference in a high school choir room in Des Moines, Iowa.

She challenged FBI director James Comey to release the full details of the new investigation, citing the crucial phase of the White House race.

"We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important national election of our lifetimes. Voting is already under way in our country," Mrs Clinton said.

"So the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.

"The director himself has said he doesn't know whether the emails referenced in his letter are significant or not."

Mrs Clinton said neither she nor her advisers had been contacted by the FBI about the new inquiry.

The news arrived with Mrs Clinton holding a solid advantage in the presidential race.

Early voting has been under way for weeks and she has a steady lead in preference polls, both nationally and in key battleground states.

The development all but ensures that, even if she wins the White House, the Democrat and several of her closest aides would celebrate a victory under a cloud of investigation.

Mr Trump leapt on the FBI's disclosure, accusing Mrs Clinton of corruption "on a scale we have never seen before".

"We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office," Mr Trump said during a rally in New Hampshire.

Mrs Clinton's campaign was enraged by Mr Comey's decision to disclose the existence of the fresh investigation in a vaguely worded letter to several congressional leaders.

It was not until hours later that word emerged that the source of the new emails was Mr Weiner, who is under investigation for allegedly sending sexually explicit text messages to a teenage girl.

"It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election," said John Podesta, Mrs Clinton's campaign chairman.

Congressional Republicans have already promised years of investigations into Mrs Clinton's private email system.

And that is only one of the email-related controversies facing her in the campaign's closing days.

The tens of thousands of confidential emails from Clinton campaign insiders that were hacked - her campaign blames Russia - and then released by WikiLeaks have provided a steady stream of questions about her policy positions, personnel choices and ties with her husband's sprawling charitable network and post-presidential pursuits.

In his Friday letter to congressional leaders, Mr Comey wrote only that new emails have emerged, prompting the agency to "take appropriate investigative steps" to review the information that may be pertinent to its previously closed investigation into Mrs Clinton's private email system.

The FBI ended that investigation in July without filing charges, although Mr Comey said at the time that Mrs Clinton and her aides had been "extremely careless" in using the system for communications about government business.

The agency, which did not respond to questions about Mr Comey's letter and did not lay out a timeline for the review, is also investigating the recent hacks of Mr Podesta's emails.

The swirling controversies have clouded what had looked to be a strong finish for Mrs Clinton's campaign.

Moments before the FBI inquiry became public, her campaign announced plans to hold a rally in Arizona, a traditionally red state put in play by Mr Trump's deep unpopularity among minority voters, Mormons and business leaders.

To the frustration of many in his party, Mr Trump has struggled to consistently drive an attack against Mrs Clinton, often turning to personal denunciations of private citizens he feels have wronged him, such as the Gold Star family of Captain Humayun Khan, a Muslim-American soldier killed in action.

But he quickly pounced on the email news, seeing an opportunity to press the argument he has long tried to make against Mrs Clinton - that she thinks she is above the law and that she put US security at risk by using her personal email.

After weeks of declaring the race "rigged" in favour of his opponent, he declared he has "great respect" for the FBI and the Justice Department, now that they are "willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made" in concluding the investigation earlier.

As Mrs Clinton wrapped up her short comments to reporters on Friday, she was asked whether she thought the new investigation would sink her campaign.

She walked away, responding only with a hearty laugh.