The FBI’s announcement it was examining emails related to its inquiry of Hillary Clinton’s private server stunned political watchers less than two weeks away from the presidential election. But the announcement also reportedly surprised a key player: Huma Abedin, the Clinton aide whose emails were found.
Abedin was unaware her emails were on the laptop belonging to her estranged husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner, according to news reports, including a Politico report Monday that cited an anonymous source “familiar with Abedin’s account.” Abedin also told colleagues that she did not know how the messages could have ended up on the device, Politico reported.
The Washington Post reported that Abedin did not regularly use the laptop she regarded as her husband’s, citing an anonymous source who added that Abedin’s lawyers did not even search the device when they turned over her emails to the State Department for records.
About 650,000 emails have been found on Weiner’s laptop, according to the Wall Street Journal, thousands of which could have been sent or received on Clinton’s private server based on their metadata.
The FBI obtained a warrant Sunday to examine the messages on the laptop more deeply, though the process will likely take months past Election Day.
Abedin had announced in August she was separating from her husband after he sent yet another series of sexually explicit photos that were revealed earlier that month. The FBI began investigating the former lawmaker’s messages in September after reports that he had sent messages and photos to a 15-year-old girl, which unearthed Abedin’s emails pertaining to the Clinton investigation.
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