Wiener, according to a Law Enforcement official, and message member in the thousands, Hillary Clinton telling reporters this. We dont know the facts, which is why we are calling on the fbi to release all the information that it has, even director comey noted that this new information may not be significant, so lets get it out. And donald trump saying this. This is bigger than watergate. This is bigger. Than watergate. In my opinion. This is bigger than watergate. All right. Were going to get right to it. Theres a lot to cover. This is the october surprise, everyone. Lets get right to cnn justice correspondent, evan perez, and chief Political Correspondent dana bash with the Trump Campaign in iowa. We have breaking news tonight. This is a letter by james comey to fbi employees explaining the decision why he did this today and i want to read it and ill get a response from both of you including my panel later. This is just in. Director comey writes this. He says, to all, this morning i sent a letter to congress, in connection with the secretary clinton email investigation. Yesterday, the Investigative Team briefed me on their recommendation with respect to seeking access to emails that have been found in an unrelated case and because those emails appear to be pertinent to our investigation i believe we should take appropriate steps to retain and review them. Of course we dont ordinarily Tell Congress about ongoing investigations but here i feel an obligation to do so given that i testified repeatedly in recent months our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American People were we not to supplement the record. At the same time, however, given we dont know the significant of this newly discovered collection of emails i dont want to create a misleading impression. In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter, and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but i wanted you to hear directly from me about it. And it is signed james comey. To evan perez now. What do you make of this explanation . Well, don, this began with this threeparagraph letter that jim comey sent to members of congress and hes right there is a lot to be misunderstood simply because it left more questions than really it answered, and heres why, because the fbis really just at the beginning of this process. They found these thousands of emails on these devices at least one device shared by huma abedin and her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, with with regards to this investigation into his alleged sexing withting with a 15yearold girl in north carolina. They came across these emails and decided we have to bring in this other team working on the Hillary Clinton investigation and take a look. So really they were kind of caught in between in between very bad choices, right, which is either disclose this now or wait until after the election. The decision that fbi director decided on was simply they could not hold on to this information. They were going to have to bring in other agencies to review these emails to see if theres anything classified on them, don, and so thats the reason why comey felt he had no choice but to send this letter to congress today, 11 days before the voters make their decision on election day. He said there may be a significant risk of creating an misleading impression in the middle of an election season. Given that why would he go public or not at least include more details, evan . Thats the question both the Clinton Campaign and republicans in congress are asking, which is give us more information, because this is pertinent to what voters are about to decide and what shes decided here is that simply because the investigators were about to bring in their work and this was probably going to leak any way, the decision was made rather than have it leak in a different way he decided he was going to tell members of Congress Since he has been testifying for hours and hours before members of congress he decided it was time to provide that information. Theres a lot we dont know. We dont know whether these emails might be duplicates of some of the other emails that investigators have already taken a look at. Thats why theyre going to bring in these other agencies to take a look and theres the matter of whether or not this is going to change the fbis recommendation from back in july, which is there was not enough charges to bring against Hillary Clinton. They know this is a mess but they feel there was no other way to handle this. All right. Stand by. I want to bring in dana now. You are covering the Trump Campaign in iowa tonight, whats the response there . You can see behind me he started his speech earlier today, talking about this but for the first time responded to what Hillary Clinton said also in iowa. The investigation is the biggest political scandal since watergate, and its everybodys hope that justice at last can be delivered. Reporter in addition to that, don, he also talked about as i mentioned, what Hillary Clinton said earlier today, really some pretty tough stuff with regard to the fbi, they put this out there without much of an explanation. He also seized on something that clinton said, that that comey sent a letter to republicans when it really wasnt just republicans; it was a bipartisan letter, so that is one of the subplots that donald trump is getting at here, but this is part of the narrative, as you well know, as we all know, that the Trump Campaign has felt all along, that they have some benefit in pushing because it feeds into what you hear, lock her up, in these crowds, much more importantly from people who are not yet decided whether or not or not they can go for Hillary Clinton if theyre looking for somebody who is different, not somebody who is more of the same. This is something that the Trump Campaign clearly feels that they can use in these waning days to try to persuade those onthefence voters, they should go with the outsider, not somebody whose been in washington in part of the quote unquote corrupt system through all of these decades. If feeds into whether or not shes trustworthy, or her untrustworthy factor. You mentioned Hillary Clinton responded to the fbi probe a short time ago and answered a question on whether it will hurt her with voters. Listen to this. I think people a long time ago made up their minds about the emails. I think thats factored in to what people think, and now theyre choosing a president. So i would urge everybody to get out and vote early, in all the states that have early voting because i think americans want a president who can lead our country, who can get the economy working for everyone, not just at the top and can bring our country together. I offer that, i can do that and im very confident the American People know that and were going to continue to discuss whats at stake in this election. So dana she said everything she was supposed to say, but shes saying it wont affect the election. Was she supposed to say that . They have got to be worried about that now and she doesnt really know that for sure. Reporter of course. She also said that people are voting in 11 days, and that is its concerning to her that Something Like this was put out, which would clearly potentially affect peoples votes. She sort of had a mixed message, but the other thing she said, don, was people are already voting and that is true, especially in a state where we are right now, in iowa, people have been voting since september 29th, so its not as if even if jim comey or the fbi came out with a more clear explanation of whats going on, whether or not they will, we dont know. It would matter for people who are getting their absentee ballots going and voting today, tomorrow, and the next day, you know, this might persuade them. All right. Dana bash, stand by, as well as evan. We have a lot to get to tonight. I want to bring in cnn politics executive editor mark preston, Alan Dershowtiz, cnn political analyst christen powers, a columnist for usa today, ryan lizza, and david gergen, cnns political analyst. Im so glad to have you here this evening, but happy to have mr. Dershowtiz, an attorney who can walk us through this. Im going to start with you, allen. Before we get the politics of this, mark. Why was this not discovered before . Well, thats the real question. Huma abedins lawyers probably should have turned any emails that she sent relating to the email investigation in response to earlier subpoenas and the reason that question comes up is they shouldnt have found it in an investigation of wiener. When they took wieners computer, immediately her lawyer should have gone to court and said, all right, you have wieners computer and you can look at the sexting material but you shouldnt be able to look at any of her his wifes emails that have nothing to do with the texting investigation. Why didnt that happen . Well, because i think im speculating here, but i think the lawyers realized that probably they should have turned these emails over as part of the other investigation, so i think we have to think hard about the responsibility of huma abedins lawyers in this whole thing coming out so late and coming out at all. The responsibility of huma abedins lawyers you thought they were caught unaware, or did they explain it. Normally what lawyers are telling me and calling me is why didnt huma abedins lawyers immediately make a standard motion when the computer was seized . All right. You can have weiners emails but you cant have humas emails. That has nothing to do with that sexting investigation. Why didnt they make that motion . At least one possible explanation is they should have turned those emails over much earlier. Had they done that, this wouldnt be an 11 day surprise, it would have happened weeks or months ago. So mark preston, the timing couldnt be worse but does the fbi review of these new emails mean that Hillary Clinton has done anything wrong, or that she was even involved in them . Look, we dont know anything. All we know is the fbi is investigating this or reopening the case whatever legales we want to use or jargon we want to use. It appears that this is an issue of huma abedin forwarding emails to her private account, but again thats just speculation on our part. But appearance is everything so even if it has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton in the sense that she was part of the Delivery System on this, shes still connected to it, shes still the principal and we are 11 days before election day and were voting in 35 states right now. This is a political issue for her. To your point and this is politicos reporting a while ago and ive heard others say this, this evening. A quote, abedin found it was difficult to print from the state Department System so shed forward emails to her yahoo email, clintonmail. Com accounts or other emails of her husband, Anthony Weiner and there was a lot to print. Clinton didnt like reading long emails. The blackberry font was too small so shed often forward such stuff to staff to print, deluged by information, she said she would often print and she passed along documents without reading them. David gergen what does that mean . That means theres extreme sloppiness between the clinton camp, how this email was handled. Alan dershowtiz was right, they should have turned it over to the fbi long ago and had it all settled at one point back in july and not be in this quandary, but i think at the same time, while the fbi director did the right thing by sending the letter he had a responsibility to congress. He also has a responsibility to the american public, the American Voters and to these candidates and that is that having announced this, he owes it to voters to provide as much to provide total information about how many emails are there, who wrote them, when were they written. The kind of that information should be easily available. He ought to have a report out to the American People within 72 hours. I think thats only fair. He cannot leave this thing dangling over as a cloud over this campaign. The fbis role is to be neutral and impartial and to leave it dangling obviously presents real threats to the Clinton Campaign, thats why theyre so angry. He needs to let the Voters Decide what they think about when thats over. The clinton camp has to take some responsibility for this mess. Ryan lizza . Don, the thing you just read about her forwarding emails to print them out, that comes from huma abedins interview with the fbi. It comes from the 302 that was released by the fbi. You know, they she takes them through the various email accounts she had. I dont really see what is so scandalous about a state Department Staffer printing out emails. Right . So i think were jumping to conclusions about certain activities that happen in an office that could be completely innocent. I think the way i agree with david about the way that comey has handled this. I understand the pressure he was obviously under. He does not want the election to be over and this to have leaked out in between now and then. So i think he was taking the affirmative step of informing congress but by doing that hes raised many more questions than hes answered, and hes in a jam now because i dont think theres whole lot he can tell us because they dont apparently from what we know today, they havent looked at these emails. So you know this is a little bit unfair to the Clinton Campaign that there you know, theres suspicions raised and implications raised and the investigations been reopened or maybe it hasnt. And they dont really know what they are defending themselves from. I think comey, in a very difficult place here, but made a big mistake. Can you imagine what would happen if it turns out there was nothing there and then we learn that after the election and Hillary Clinton loses the election . Thats what he didnt he only considered the opposite because he assumed hillary was going to win and then he was worried maybe something would turn out that was negative. He didnt consider the opposite. Clinton potentially loses theres nothing there, comey becomes the goat and villain of this whole enterprise. Kerstin powers is this scandal baked in with voters as Hillary Clinton tried to argue or could this have independents move toward donald trump . Democrats made a decision they had sort of made their peace with this but her answer to the question was a little tone deaf because its not quite right to the extent that people other people, independent voters, undecided voters have made up their mind. What theyve made up their mind, theyre very uneasy about it and thats why we saw her trust numbers really drop off after the email server became a a central issue in this campaign, and its something that has dogged her this entire time and you have to wonder what this campaign would have been been like had this not happened. Instead of saying this is sort of baked into it, which is essentially what she was saying, she should have taken the opportunity to remind people director comey did not find any grounds to prosecute her or they didnt do anything wrong, they have complied with everything, if i were her, i would have taken the opportunity to sort of reassure people, and in terms of what director comey has done here, i think whats hard for him, at least according to reports, there is thousands of emails. So theres really no way for him to know at this point whats in those emails and thats the point of why he told congress and he needed to let Congress Know and he needed to be public about it because once it went to congress it was going to leak so i think he did have to say something. And thats to alans point. What if there is nothing. And then were going to continue to discuss. Mark i know you want to get in, as well. Alan, stand by, everyone. Coming up, Vice President joe biden speaking to cnn about this whole email mess and what he thinks of Anthony Weiner next. Hillary clinton far too many families today dont earn what they need and dont have the opportunities they deserve. I believe families deserve quality education for their kids, childcare they can trust and afford, equal pay for women, and jobs they can really live on. People ask me what will be different if im president . Well kids and families have been the passion of my life and they will be the heart of my presidency. Im Hillary Clinton and i approve this message. To be taken care of. In good hands . Like finding new ways home, car, Life Insurance obviously, ohhh. But with added touches you cant get everywhere else, like claim free rewards. Or safe driving bonus checks. Even a claim satisfaction guaranteeeeeeeeeee in means Protection Plus unique extras only from an expert allstate agent. Its good to be in, good hands. Gilman go get it, marcus. Go get it. Coach gilman used his cash rewards credit card from bank of america to earn 1 cash back everywhere, every time. At places like the batting cages. [ crowd cheers ] 2 back at Grocery Stores and now at wholesale clubs. And 3 back on gas. Which helped him give his players something extra. The cash rewards credit card from bank of america. More cash back for the things you buy most. And were back with the breaking news tonight. Hillary clinton calling on the fbi to release more information and its in its review, about its review about newly discovered emails as part of the investigation of Anthony Weiners sexting scandal. With