By Christopher Adinolfi ‘17In a shocking FBI action eleven days before the 2016 Presidential Election, Director James Comey publicly announced that more emails were discovered in relation to Hillary Clinton’s private email investigation. At a crucial time in the tightening race, this decision has led to a narrowing of Clinton’s lead over Trump and outcry by prominent Democrats over the appropriateness of FBI “politics.” Since the announcement on October 28, Clinton has held an impromptu press conference in Des Moines and a rally in Daytona criticizing the action, while trump has held rallies praising the “courage to right this horrible wrong.”On October 28, Director Comey sent a letter to Congress stating that new emails were discovered that “appear to be pertinent to the investigation.” According to FBI officials, these new messages were found while investigating former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop. The FBI is still unclear to have implicating evidence in the Clinton case. Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, the political world was completely shocked when Comey made the announcement. Democrats have decried the letter as an attack on the Clinton campaign and an unprecedented move of partisan politics in the FBI. Clinton held a rare news conference in Des Moines, Iowa after the action, calling upon the FBI to release all the information in the latest piece of the investigation, citing that “the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.” With only 11 days to the election, Democrats believe that the announcement without the complete facts is only a partisan move to cut her lead on GOP candidate Donald Trump using the common “October Surprise” tactic.The GOP and Donald Trump, on the other hand, have praised the FBI review of the new emails as justice for the American people and the idea that even presidential candidates are not above the law, regardless of politics. In an attempt to reverse the opinion of those claiming this is a partisan attack, leading Republicans like House Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte believe this is “righting the wrong” of the “controversy that has existed in the FBI and in the Justice Department.”In reality, this announcement is unprecedented and can be argued as an extension of the current state of American politics: gridlocked partisan politics. Just as the GOP felt that Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s meeting with former President Bill Clinton this past summer was a breach of the call for neutrality in Hillary Clinton’s case, Comey’s second announcement seems as if the FBI is purposefully attacking the Democrat’s election chances. In a political climate ridden with gridlocked attacks such as the blocking of President Obama’s Supreme Court candidate and the hollowing out of the Affordable Health Care Act, this announcement is just another tactic that adds to the public’s delusion with party politics. As the most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that the email announcement has aided in cutting Clinton’s lead, the public will cast their votes amongst partisan outcry on both sides of the race.Sources:http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-republican-defends-fbi-director-email-review/story?id=43163566http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary-clinton-calls-fbi-release-information-latest-email/story?id=43147453http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/30/politics/poll-clinton-trump-florida-north-carolina/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2016/10/28/politics/fbi-reviewing-new-emails-in-clinton-probe-director-tells-senate-judiciary-committee/index.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/us/politics/fbi-hillary-clinton-emails.html?_r=0http://time.com/4550453/hillary-clinton-james-comey-fbi-emails/