10 things you need to know today: November 1, 2016

James Comey testifies before the House Judiciary Committee

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1. FBI begins latest Clinton-linked email inquiry, promises speed
2. Report: Comey opposed disclosing Russia election-meddling suspicions
3. Times: Trump avoided taxes against his own lawyers' advice
4. CNN severs ties with Donna Brazile over alleged debate question leak
5. Report: FBI looking into former Trump campaign manager's foreign ties
6. Orlando police calls with nightclub attacker released
7. 1 dies, 6 injured in Alabama gas pipeline explosion
8. Iraqi forces and allies strike ISIS defenses on edge of Mosul
9. Kasich votes... for 2008 GOP nominee
10. 3 killed in Mississippi crash involving trailer carrying Halloween revelers

published 1 November 2016

1. FBI begins latest Clinton-linked email inquiry, promises speed

The FBI has started reviewing newly found emails belonging to Huma Abedin, a top aide to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, to determine whether they contained classified information, law enforcement officials said Monday. Agents will use special software to quickly determine whether any of the messages are copies of emails already reviewed during the FBI's investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state. The Justice Department promised lawmakers it would work with the FBI to complete the review "as expeditiously as possible," but it remained unclear whether the investigation would be completed by Nov. 8, Election Day.

FBI Director James Comey reportedly disagreed with the government's decision earlier last month to confirm suspicions that Russia was meddling in the U.S. election, a former FBI official told CNBC on Monday. Comey reportedly reasoned that it was too close to Election Day. The Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement on Oct. 7 saying the U.S. was "confident" Russia had directed hacks on American political institutions, including the Democratic National Committee, "to interfere with the U.S. election process." Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign noted that Comey told Congress even closer to the election that the FBI was investigating newly discovered emails possibly linked to Clinton, and accused the FBI chief of "a blatant double standard."

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Donald Trump avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in personal income taxes during the 1990s using a tax avoidance move his own lawyers argued the IRS would find to be improper, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. "Whatever loophole existed was not 'exploited' here, but stretched beyond any recognition," said Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The maneuver, later outlawed by Congress, allowed Trump to avoid reporting hundreds of millions of dollars of income at a time when he was struggling with financial problems. Trump declined to comment for the Times article.

CNN confirmed Monday that it had cut ties with interim Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile, accepting her resignation as a contributor on Oct. 14 after hacked emails indicated that she alerted Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign to likely debate questions. The news came after a second email revealed by WikiLeaks attributed to Brazile tipped off the campaign on a debate question. In an email released earlier, Brazile told John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chair, in March that she sometimes gets "questions in advance."

The FBI is conducting a preliminary examination of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's foreign business connections, law enforcement officials told NBC News on Monday. Manafort denied the report, saying it was "Democratic propaganda" meant to deflect attention from the FBI's inquiry into a new batch of emails linked to Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The FBI did not comment. NBC News reported in August that Manafort had a central role in multi-million-dollar business dealings with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, including a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Orlando, Florida, authorities on Monday released nearly 30 minutes of recordings of phone calls a police negotiator and a dispatcher had with Omar Mateen during his deadly attack on the Pulse nightclub on June 12. Mateen, who was later killed by police, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and told a dispatcher and a negotiator that his attack on club-goers was in response to U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. "They're killing a lot of innocent people," Mateen said. "So what am I to do here, when my people are getting killed over there? You get what I'm saying?" The attack left 49 people dead and at least 68 injured in the LGBTQ nightclub.

One person was killed and six others suffered severe burns when a gas line exploded in Alabama on Monday. Colonial Pipeline Co. shut down its main gasoline and distillates pipelines after the accident, which sent flames 50 feet into the air. It was the second time in two months that Colonial was forced to shut down the line, which is the biggest pipeline in the U.S. and a key source of fuel for the East Coast. The latest accident occurred as a nine-man crew was working on the pipeline. A September spill on one part of the pipeline miles away from Monday's accident site shut the line for 12 days, creating temporary gasoline shortages in the Southeast.

Iraqi forces made their first push through Islamic State defenses into an eastern suburb of Mosul on Monday, advancing into the city limits for the first time since the government and its allies launched an offensive to retake the city two weeks ago. The massive coalition, mustered to drive ISIS out of its last main stronghold in northern Iraq, marks the largest military operation in the country since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination this year, on Monday stuck to his pledge not to vote for the party's nominee, Donald Trump. Kasich voted by absentee ballot Monday and wrote in 2008 GOP nominee Sen. John McCain, Kasich spokesman Chris Schrimpf said. Kasich vowed not to vote for Trump after a hot-mic video surfaced last month in which Trump boasted about kissing and groping women without their consent. Kasich picked McCain over Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and Libertarian Gary Johnson, a former Republican. Kasich's vote is symbolic, however, as McCain is not one of the 18 write-in candidates certified in the state.

Two children and an adult, all relatives, were killed Monday night when a vehicle hit a flat-bed trailer they were riding on in a small Mississippi town on Monday. The victims and other families were dressed up for Halloween. Two of the victims died at the scene, the other at a hospital. Investigators did not immediately say what caused the crash. "It was just chaos," Newton County Coroner Danny Shoemaker said.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.