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Recordings aggravated FBI, DOJ feud in Clinton Foundation probe

Secret recordings of a suspect talking about the Clinton Foundation fueled an internal battle between FBI agents who wanted to pursue the case and corruption prosecutors who viewed the statements as worthless hearsay, people familiar with the matter said.
Agents, using informants and recordings from unrelated corruption investigations, thought they had found enough material to merit aggressively pursuing the investigation into the foundation that started in summer 2015 based on claims made in a book by a conservative author called “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” these people said.
The account of the case and resulting dispute comes from interviews with officials at multiple agencies.
Starting in February and continuing today, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and public-corruption prosecutors became increasingly frustrated with each other, as often happens within and between departments. At the center of the tension stood the U.S. attorney for Brooklyn, Robert Capers, who some at the FBI came to view as exacerbating the problems by telling each side what it wanted to hear, these people said. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Capers declined to comment.
The roots of the dispute lie in a disagreement over the strength of the case, these people said, which broadly centered on whether Clinton Foundation contributors received favorable treatment from the State Department under Hillary Clinton.
Senior officials in the Justice Department and the FBI didn’t think much of the evidence, while investigators believed they had promising leads their bosses wouldn’t let them pursue, they said.

FBI's Clinton Foundation investigation now 'a very high priority,' sources say

Clinton and Weiner?

The FBI's investigation into the Clinton Foundation that has been going on for more than a year has now taken a "very high priority," separate sources with intimate knowledge of the probe tell Fox News.
FBI agents have interviewed and re-interviewed multiple people on the foundation case, which is looking into possible pay for play interaction between then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. The FBI's White Collar Crime Division is handling the investigation.
Even before the WikiLeaks dumps of alleged emails linked to the Clinton campaign, FBI agents had collected a great deal of evidence, law enforcement sources tell Fox News.
"There is an avalanche of new information coming in every day," one source told Fox News, who added some of the new information is coming from the WikiLeaks documents and new emails.
FBI agents are "actively and aggressively pursuing this case," and will be going back and interviewing the same people again, some for the third time, sources said.
Agents are also going through what Clinton and top aides have said in previous interviews and the FBI 302, documents agents use to report interviews they conduct, to make sure notes line up, according to sources.

Electoral map, polls scrambled in final days amid campaign unrest

The 2016 presidential race is, borrowing a phrase from Donald Trump, once again keeping America in “suspense” – with the polls and the electoral map being scrambled in the final days amid a slew of late-breaking developments.
Just one week ago, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had assumed a confident air on the stump, enjoying a rare period when the political pieces were aligning for her in the wake of damaging allegations against her Republican rival. But the polls are tightening again, as voters assess a range of other factors, including the FBI’s stunning decision to revisit her private email investigation.
Election prognosticators still say Clinton enjoys the advantage going into the big day – in large part because the states President Obama won in 2012 mostly have stayed Democrat-leaning this year, giving her a substantial built-in advantage.
But, even though Trump faces a tough climb to the 270 electoral votes it takes to win, the map is changing in the final days, in several cases in his favor.
The latest Fox News Electoral Scorecard has moved both Florida and Nevada – two states previously rated “lean Democrat” – into the “toss-up” category, citing shifts in the polls.
The same update moved Alaska from “solid Republican” to “lean Republican” and North Carolina from “toss-up” to “lean Democrat.” But in another indicator of how difficult the race is to gauge, a new WRAL News poll showed Trump with a 7-point lead in North Carolina, despite other polls showing Clinton ahead.

Predictions Map

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National polls show the race tightening up into a virtual draw. The latest ABC News/ Washington Post tracking poll shows the candidates tied, 46-46 percent.
As with any election year, what matters is what happens in the battlegrounds.
“In the end, the popular vote isn’t what matters. It’s the Electoral College,” pollster Frank Luntz told Fox News. “And that Electoral College map is very difficult for Donald Trump, even though in every other indicator, it’s moving in the right direction for him.”
The Fox News Electoral Scorecard shows all the “solid” and “lean” Democrat states would give Clinton 287 electoral votes, more than enough to take the White House. The Republican-rated states give Trump 174.
To win, Trump would need to lock down the toss-up states as well as pick off territory from the Democratic column.
On the campaign trail, Trump is sounding more confident of his chances, no longer focusing as heavily on warnings that the vote would be “rigged” against him.
“In just one week, we are going to win the great state of Wisconsin and we are going to win back the White House … lotta’ good polls out there today,” he declared at a rally Tuesday night in Eau Claire, Wis., while also citing the North Carolina poll.
Trump has seized on a spate of developments, including the FBI’s investigation of newly discovered emails on a laptop used by Clinton adviser Huma Abedin’s estranged husband Anthony Weiner – as well as the tidal wave of revelations from WikiLeaks-posted emails from the Clinton campaign chairman’s hacked account.

Trump, Clinton make final push for Florida in last days of campaign

Republican nominee Donald Trump turned his attention to the battleground state of Florida Wednesday, making three campaign stops across the Sunshine State.
Trump visited Miami, Orlando and Pensacola, and was scheduled to stop in Jacksonville Thursday.
"'Stay on point, Donald, stay on point,"' Trump teasingly quoted his staff as saying at an evening rally in Pensacola. "No sidetracks, Donald. Nice and easy. Nice and easy."'
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Trump in a virtual tie in Florida with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Both sides agree the New York businessman has virtually no chance to win the presidency without the state's trove of 29 electoral votes.
"We don't want to blow this," Trump told rowdy supporters in Miami. "We gotta win. We gotta win big."
Conceding nothing in the state, Clinton has also been a frequent visitor. She posed for pictures and shook hands during a surprise visit to a South Florida Caribbean-American neighborhood Wednesday morning.

Predictions Map

See the Fox News 2016 battleground prediction map and make your own election projections. See Predictions Map →

The Democratic nominee has built a powerful ground game, backed by a dominant media presence, that dwarfs her opponent's. Clinton has more than doubled Trump's investment in Florida television ads. Overall, the state has been deluged with $125 million in general election advertising -- by far the most of any state.
Later Wednesday, Clinton addressed a boisterous crowd of around 15,000 in Arizona, a traditionally Republican state that she has tried to pluck away from Trump.
"This state is in play for the first time in years," said Clinton, whose husband Bill won Arizona in his successful 1996 re-election bid. Clinton also waded into a local sheriff's race getting national attention, backing Democrat Paul Penzone in the race for Maricopa County sheriff, a post held by immigration hardliner Joe Arpaio.

"I think it's time you had a new sheriff in town, don't you?" she asked the crowd at Arizona State University.
Trump lashed out at "Crooked Hillary" in Miami, predicting that a Clinton victory would trigger an "unprecedented and protracted constitutional crisis" as federal investigators probe the former secretary of state's email practices. But Trump did not take the bait dangled by the Clinton campaign about his treatment of women.
In Pensacola, Trump turned his criticism to President Barack Obama, who had spent Wednesday rallying Clinton supporters in North Carolina.
"He's gotta stop campaigning for Crooked Hillary," Trump said of Obama. "He's gotta go back -- go to the office ... I mean this guy, all he wants to do is campaign for Hillary. It's unbelievable."
Democrats acknowledge that the FBI's renewed attention to her has helped rally reluctant Republicans behind their nominee. That's given Trump an enthusiasm boost in Florida and across Midwestern battlegrounds long considered reliably blue territory.

"I'm definitely nervous," said former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat. "Democrats in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, if you heard it was over, if you thought those states were in the bag, don't believe it."

Perhaps heeding Rendell's warning, Clinton's team is devoting new resources to states like Michigan, which last voted for a Republican nominee in 1988.