Sensing a potential turning point, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has mounted a furious effort to portray Democrat Hillary Clinton as unfit to lead the country after the latest chapter in her email controversy unfolded.
With the November 8 election only 10 days away, Trump devoted much of his stump speech on Saturday to try to take the maximum advantage of the FBI's disclosure that it is investigating more emails as part of a probe into Clinton's use of a private email server.
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Little is known about the extent and focus of the new FBI review. But Trump was quick to declare his rival "guilty" at rallies in Phoenix and in Golden, Colorado, declaring that she is symbolic of a type of public corruption that is a "grave threat to our democracy".
Trump charged that the Justice Department, populated by appointees of Democratic President Barack Obama, is trying to help Clinton, given news reports that top department officials did not want FBI Director James Comey to reveal his new review.
"When the outcome is fixed, when the system is rigged, people lose hope. They stop dreaming. They stop trying," Trump said in Phoenix.
"Hillary Clinton's corruption is corrosive to the soul of our nation and it must be stopped."
Clinton herself has repeatedly attacked Trump as not fit to be president.
The new uproar could not have come at a more opportune time for Trump, who has been reeling for weeks from the release of a 2005 audio tape in which he boasted about groping women and the emergence of a host of women who said he did just that to them.
Trump has narrowed the gap in public opinion polls between him and Clinton nationally and in some battleground states where the election is likely to be decided. But most analyses of the polls show him facing a defeat, perhaps a landslide, if the election were to be held today.
Trump's next couple of days on the campaign trail reflect a change in strategy with uncertain rewards. He is to campaign in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday and in Michigan on Monday, two states that have voted Democratic in recent presidential elections and appeared poised to do so again.
'Voters deserve full facts': Clinton urges FBI to detail new email information
Top aides to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton insist there is "no evidence of wrongdoing" following the FBI's notification to the US Congress that it is again looking at Clinton's use of a private server for emails when she was secretary of state.
"There's no evidence of wrongdoing, no charge of wrongdoing," Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told reporters on Saturday.
Podesta, following up on calls by Clinton late on Friday, urged FBI Director James Comey to make public the details of any new developments in the case.
Podesta also complained that 24 hours after Comey's letter was transmitted to Congress, "We have no real explanation of why Director Comey" sent it.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that senior Justice Department officials told Comey his letter to Congress was inconsistent with FBI policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations.
This latest controversy over Clinton emails has surfaced in the waning days of a bitter presidential campaign against Republican challenger Donald Trump.
Election Day is on November 8.
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In July, Comey said the FBI would not seek to prosecute Clinton after looking into whether she may have handled classified material improperly in emails.
Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign worked to tamp down speculation of a voter backlash after Friday's letter by Comey surfaced in which he said the FBI was taking "appropriate investigative steps" after learning of emails "that appear to be pertinent" to the earlier investigation.
Campaign manager Robby Mook said voters had already "factored" what they knew about the email investigation into their decision-making.
"We don't see it changing the landscape" for undecided voters, Mook said.
Sources close to the investigation on Friday said the latest emails were discovered as part of a separate probe into Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
Weiner, a former US congressman from New York, is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit text messages he is alleged to have sent to a 15 -year-old girl in North Carolina.
Trump, in campaign appearances on Friday, called the new development part of "the biggest political scandal since Watergate" that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.
With less than two weeks before the elections, both Trump and Clinton were scheduled to hold multiple campaign rallies later on Saturday.
In his remarks to reporters, Podesta complained that Comey's letter to Congress was "light on facts, heavy on innuendo" and urged him to "come forward and give those answers to the American public" about the exact nature of the FBI's latest review of emails.
