The discovery of the emails on the disgraced New York congressman’s laptop prompted the FBI director, James Comey, to briefly reopen an investigation that he had closed over the summer into Clinton’s use of the private server to handle emails she sent and received as secretary of state.

After getting court consent to delve into the newly discovered emails on 30 October, agents spent several days analyzing them before Comey announced that they contained no new evidence of any wrongdoing by Clinton.