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News Analysis: WikiLeaks not hurting Clinton, but new FBI probe's impact remains to be seen

Xinhua, October 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

The campaign by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was hardly hurt by the WikiLeaks release of troves of emails, but the impact of the latest reopened investigation by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) remains to be seen.

With the Election Day just 11 days away, FBI director James Comey dropped a political bombshell Friday by informing the House Oversight Committee that it reopened the probe into Clinton's emails case after discovering some emails that appeared to be linked to its previous investigation into Clinton's use of private email account while she was secretary of state.

The newly discovered emails, which are not Clinton's, were reportedly discovered by the FBI from at least one electronic device shared by disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife, Huma Abedin, a close Clinton aide, the New York Times reported.

The FBI declined to indict Clinton after its previous probe ended in July, though Comey slammed Clinton for being "extremely careless" in dealing with classified information.

Recent weeks have seen the release via the website WikiLeaks of troves of emails that critics say bolster an ongoing narrative that Clinton and her campaign are engaged in corruption.

The latest of those include an alleged overlap between the Clinton Foundation, a charity organization run by the Clinton family, and Bill Clinton' s personal finances - which critics and U.S. media bill as highly questionable. Others include an admission by Hillary Clinton that she knew a major U.S. ally in the Middle East was helping to finance the terror group Islamic State.

But despite critics' allegations of corruption, polls show Clinton leading against rival Donald Trump - the bombastic billionaire that has grabbed recent media headlines for sexist remarks that were caught on tape several years ago and released in recent weeks.

Analysts say there are several reasons that the WikiLeaks have not hurt Clinton. Those include the contention that scandals involving sex are much more exciting and interesting for the average American than difficult-to-understand allegations of legal wrongdoing.

"There is negative information in the WikiLeaks email disclosures about the Clinton campaign, but none of them seem to hurt (Clinton) very much," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

The WikiLeaks' leaked emails show a staff operation that is very political, but that isn' t surprising to many people, West said, adding that Trump' s sexist comments caught on tape have hurt the controversial businessman much more than the WikiLeaks hurt Clinton.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that if Clinton were facing a more traditional Republican candidate, the narrative of these emails could drag her down.

However, for a public that doesn' t spend a lot of time focused on politics, this is not a new story, he said, noting the controversy over Clinton's use of a personal email account to conduct business when she was secretary of state.

Before the latest FBI investigation, te email controversy, which has dogged Clinton's campaign for several months, was already considered old hat by voters and much U.S. media.

While the leaked emails can appear damning, there is nothing in them that is as damning as comments coming directly out of Trump' s mouth, Mahaffee said, referring to the recent sexist comments Trump has made, as well as a number of other controversial comments.

In this age of TV and multimedia, audio and video recordings can be far more impactful than textual analysis, especially when the majority of the scandalous emails released by the WikiLeaks are not those directly from Clinton, but rather advisors that likely have almost zero name recognition among the general public, Mahaffee pointed out.

The perception of Clinton of being dishonest is not a new one-and is reflected in her unfavorable numbers-yet Trump' s temperament, style, and behavior have been far more off putting to key demographics, such as women, minorities and younger voters, compared to what was said in these emails, Mahaffee said.

But the latest FBI probe thrusted the Clinton emails controversy back into the political spotlight and could have an impact on undecided voters so close to the election.

Clinton is now leading Trump by 5.2 percentage points in average polls nationwide conducted from Oct. 20 to Oct. 27, according to the RealClear Politics' polling data.

At a rally in New Hampshire on Friday, Trump seized on the FBI disclosure by attacking Clinton's corruption that he said "is on a scale we've never seen before."

"They are reopening the case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United States of America", Trump told his supporters in the rally.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, also hailed in a tweet that this was a "great day in our campaign just got even better." Enditem