Huma Abedin Never Saw a Search Warrant for FBI Email Searches
Huma says she never received FBI warrants for email searches
Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin told a Manhattan federal judge in a court filing Thursday that neither she nor Anthony Weiner ever received FBI search warrants for emails found on her estranged husband’s computer — raising questions about whether FBI warrants for the emails were ever issued, and if so, to whom.
In the letter, Abedin’s lawyer said she is unable to comment on a Los Angeles lawyer’s request for FBI warrants tied to her emails, because “the government has never provided her with a copy of the warrant it reportedly obtained to search certain emails.”
“We understand that Mr. Weiner has likewise not been provided with a copy of the material,” said the letter from lawyer Karen Dunn.
Abedin’s letter is tied to a request by E. Randol Schoenberg, a genealogist and lawyer based in LA, who has asked a Manhattan federal judge to help him get to the bottom of FBI Director James Comey’s late-October surprise announcement that emails tied to the agency’s probe into Clinton’s email server were found on Weiner’s computer during the FBI’s probe into his sexting with an underage teen.
Schoenberg, known for recovering artwork stolen by the Nazis, wants Judge Kevin Castel to make the warrants public to ensure the FBI had proper cause to investigate the emails. Schoenberg’s letter suggested urgency in getting to the bottom of the warrants before the “impending vote of the Electoral College” on Dec. 19 to finalize the presidential election.
Dunn’s letter Thursday cites law that states an officer executing the warrant “must give a copy of the warrant and a receipt or the property taken to the person from whom, or from whose premise, the property was taken.”
Dunn also requests copies of the warrant and warrant application “so Ms. Abedin may formulate her position” on Schoenberg’s request.
The FBI did not immediately return a request for comment.
Reports at the time said the Justice Department was required to obtain separate warrants because Abedin’s emails were not related to the probe into Weiner’s sexting.
Castel suggested at a hearing Tuesday that he was inclined to release any warrants tied to the investigation, but said he wanted to hear first from the parties who had been served.
Clinton has criticized the FBI’s handling of the emails found on Weiner’s computer, which Comey made public 11 days before the election.
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