Now the Federal Bureau of Investigation: Hillary Clinton Keeps Saying She Didn’t Send Classified Emails

Fox News is reporting this morning that the FBI has expanded its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to now see if people interviewed gave or were pressured to give “materially false statements” from a third party.

Intelligence sources speaking under condition of anonymity told Fox News that federal agents are looking into the possibility that the Democratic presidential front-runner violated U.S. Code 18, Section 1001.

This code makes it illegal to in the “executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully”, make statements or entreaties that “falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact; makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry”.

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Timothy Gill told Fox News, “This is a broad-brush statute that punishes individuals who are not direct and fulsome in their answers”. “It is a cover-all. The problem for a defendant is when their statements cause the bureau to expend more time, energy, resources to de-conflict their statements with the evidence”, he said.

It follows a report from Politico earlier this week that said the probe into Clinton’s emails had been stepped up.

Clinton endured an 11 hour hearing from the committee on how she responded from the attacks. The House Benghazi committee didn’t subpoenaed these emails.

Bloomberg reported in late September that agents had been able to recover at least a few of the 30,000 “private” emails Clinton deleted.

The FBI has declined to comment on the scope and status of the ongoing investigation. Additionally, she turned over her server to a Denver-based IT firm, whose employees did not have security clearances, and to her attorney, who also lacked a clearance. Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy has argued to both Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Congress that the “Top Secret” emails on Clinton’s server could have been pulled from unclassified sources including news reports. But she has insisted that she didn’t violate protocol or pass along material marked classified.

It should be noted that such an investigation might not target Clinton herself, but could be directed at others in her orbit who have delivered materially false oral or written statements, or pressured third parties into doing so. Also last week, Clinton released a new ad focused on comprehensive gun reform.

“This sounds to me like it’s more than a preliminary inquiry; it sounds like a full-blown investigation”, Tom Fuentes, former assistant director of the FBI, told Politico.

During a Democratic presidential debate, Sanders said that he and the American public were “sick and exhausted of hearing about your damn emails!”