FBI clears Clinton over emails as US race enters frantic final phase

James Comey has told Congress that the FBI will take no further action against Hillary Clinton over new emails relating to the scandal involving her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

The FBI director sparked a furore two weeks ago when he informed Congress that the agency was examining new emails, amid concerns that it was getting involved in the election.

Examination of the emails – which were found on the computer of Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin – was expected to take weeks, but Mr Comey last night told Congress his agents had completed their investigation.

“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton,” Mr Comey said.

Brian Fallon, Mrs Clinton’s press secretary, tweeted: “We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited. Now Director Comey has confirmed it.”

The development will remove a cloud over Mrs Clinton, who has suffered a slide in polls since the first Comey letter.

The news came as Mrs Clinton and Donald Trump launched a two-day campaign whirlwind in battleground states in a frantic end to the presidential race that highlighted shifts in the US electoral map that could decide the outcome tomorrow.

The Clinton campaign was hoping that a surge in Latino voting would push her over the winning line in Florida, North Carolina and Nevada, while Mr Trump was betting on a heavy turnout of white, working-class voters to allow him to flip previously Democratic strongholds in the industrial midwest.

Mrs Clinton has held a lead in the polls for most of what has been one of the ugliest US presidential campaigns. She appears to have more potential paths to the 270 votes needed in the electoral college to win the White House and fend off Mr Trump’s populist insurgency.

But polls have shown a tightening race since the FBI said it was examining the new emails. An ABC/Washington Post poll yesterday gave Mrs Clinton a 48 per cent to 43 per cent lead nationally but gave Mr Trump a 48-45 per cent advantage in an aggregate of five battleground states. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll had Mrs Clinton up 4 percentage points, while an LA Times poll had Mr Trump up by 5 points.

The narrowness of the race has led to a rewriting of campaign scripts. The Clinton camp on Saturday announced a big push in Michigan, which last voted for a Republican in 1988. Bill Clinton headed for the state yesterday while Mrs Clinton and her two most effective supporters – President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle – will campaign there today.

Mr Trump was due in Michigan last night, with polls showing him doing well in neighbouring Ohio and Iowa, where Barack Obama won in 2012, but which also have large white, working class populations. The New York businessman was scheduled to make appearances in five different states yesterday.

Democrats have been encouraged by signs of heavy turnout among Hispanic voters in Florida, North Carolina and Nevada, with Mr Trump’s rhetoric against Mexican immigrants thought to have motivated a higher number to vote than in previous elections.

If Mr Trump loses Florida, which has 29 electoral college votes, or North Carolina with 15, it will be almost impossible for him to secure the necessary 270 electoral college votes.