A federal judge in New York this week unsealed the search warrant filed a week before the election, after Clinton’s emails were found on a computer seized in the Anthony Weiner teen sexting case. According to the documents, the warrant was issued on Oct. 30—two days after FBI Director James Comey made headlines with a letter to Congress advising of new developments in the Clinton investigation, which had been closed weeks before.
In the application for the warrant, the FBI claimed it had discovered “non-content header information” that appeared related to the Clinton investigation while searching the laptop for evidence against Weiner. Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton advisor Huma Abedin, was and still is under investigation for allegedly sending sexual messages and photographs to a high school girl he met on the internet.
In searching the emails, the FBI said it was trying to determine whether any of Clinton’s classified material had been stored or transmitted on the computer, which had not been authorized to receive such material.
The FBI won permission to search the contents of the emails, and ultimately concluded the Clinton investigation would remain closed. Still, it means Comey wrote the inflammatory letter—which the Clinton campaign has directly blamed for her loss—before knowing what, if anything, was contained in the emails.