You may soon be able to read the FBI warrant that helped sink Hillary Clinton

James Comey helped sway the election to Donald Trump

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 15 December 2016

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Manhattan suggested that he may approve a motion to unseal the search warrant that led FBI Director James Comey to announce that Hillary Clinton's email investigation had been reactivated just 11 days before the presidential election — only to announce nine days later that the FBI had found nothing new. "Countless American citizens, including Secretary Clinton, believe that Comey's announcement and the reopening of the investigation might have single-handedly swayed the election," says the lawsuit, filed by E. Randol Schoenberg, a lawyer most famous for recovering Nazi-looted art to its Jewish owners.

On Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel said he is inclined to make the warrant and related documents public, despite the FBI's ongoing investigation into Anthony Weiner's sexting, which led to the discovery of Clinton emails. "Director Comey described that as an unrelated case," Castel said, giving the government two days to file its arguments as to why the warrant and other documents should be kept sealed.

This may seem like relitigating done deals, but Schoenberg said it is important to understand what happened. "Why did they think they had evidence of a crime?" he told Newsweek on Wednesday. "There's a possibility that somebody gave them false information because they wanted them to reopen the investigation." Schoenberg said he is interested in what contact Donald Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani had with the FBI personnel behind the investigation, and who in the FBI and judiciary signed off on the warrant, among other things. "We should find out something from this," he said. "Where it will end, it's anybody's guess."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.