Alex Brandon/AP
FBI Director James Comey listens before a meeting of the Attorney General's Organized Crime Council and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Executive Committee to discuss implementation of the President's Executive Order 13773, at the Department of Justice, Tuesday, April 18, 2017, in Washington.
The FBI released a letter on Tuesday afternoon clarifying former Director James Comey's testimony in last week's Senate Judiciary hearing on the letter he wrote during the height of the 2016 campaign announcing the reopening of an investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server.
During his testimony, Comey incorrectly stated that Huma Abedin, a top Clinton aide, had forwarded "hundreds and thousands" of Clinton's emails to her husband, former congressman and one-time New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.
The developments came before the stunning announcement late Tuesday that President Donald Trump had fired James Comey. Comey's misstatements in the Senate hearing did not appear to be part of the administration's rationale for removing him from his post.
Comey testified that Abedin sent the emails - some of which contained classified information - so that Weiner could print them out for Clinton.
The FBI's letter - addressed to Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee - confirmed that Abedin did frequently forward emails to others to print. The FBI added, however, that it is "reasonable to conclude" that most of the emails found on Weiner's laptop related to the Clinton investigation occurred as a result of backing up personal electronic devices.
The FBI said only a small number of emails out of the 49,000 found on Weiner's computer appear to be the result of manual forwarding from Abedin to Weiner's laptop. Two of the email chains Abedin sent to Weiner's computer were found to have classified material, the FBI said.
The FBI also clarified comments Comey made that it says were"misinterpreted" regarding the number of open counterterrorism investigations into individuals who arrived in the US as refugees. The FBI said it has approximately 300 open counterterrorism investigations of subjects who entered the US as refugees.