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Justice Department advised FBI against Clinton email letter

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FILE - In this Oct., 16, 2015 file photo, Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaks to the media after testifying at a closed-door hearing of the House Benghazi Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The longtime Hillary Clinton aide at the center of a renewed FBI email investigation testified under oath four months ago she never deleted old emails, despite promising in 2013 not to take sensitive files when she left the State Department. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON – Justice Department officials have cited the proximity of the elections as a reason the FBI should not alert Congress to the unexpected discovery of emails potentially related to its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

A government official says Justice officials advised of the FBI’s intention to notify Congress about the discovery expressed concern that the action would be inconsistent with department protocols designed to avoid the appearance of interference in an election.

The official said FBI Director James Comey acted independently when he sent several members of Congress a letter about the emails on Friday. The official was not authorized to discuss internal deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

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