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Trump: ‘Now it’s up to the American people to deliver justice’

Posted at 6:45 PM, Nov 06, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-06 20:45:33-05

By Jeremy Diamond

CNN

STERLING HEIGHTS, Michigan (CNN) — Donald Trump urged voters Sunday to “deliver justice at the ballot box” on Election Day, hours after the FBI announced that its review of newly discovered emails did not change its earlier conclusion to not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton.

Trump, speaking at a rally here, did not directly refer to FBI Director James Comey’s announcement. But his remarks amounted to his first public response to the decision, and the Republican nominee argued that Clinton is “guilty” of federal crimes and said a “rigged” system was protecting Clinton.

“Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it, the FBI knows it, the people know it, and now it’s up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box on November 8,” Trump said. “Unbelievable. Unbelievable how she gets away with it.”

Trump also cast doubt on Comey’s conclusions, just over a week after the Republican nominee praised the FBI director for announcing the review of the emails, which were discovered as part of the bureau’s investigation into Anthony Weiner’s sexting.

“Right now, she is being protected by a rigged system. It’s a totally rigged system. You can’t review 650,000 emails in eight days. You can’t do it folks,” Trump said, mischaracterizing the number of emails the FBI was reviewing for connections into the private server Clinton used as secretary of state.

The FBI took custody of electronic devices containing 650,000 emails in its investigation into Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin, but identified a smaller subset of those emails as linked to Clinton.

The FBI announced Sunday that its review of those emails had not changed the conclusions it reached over the summer, when Comey recommended no charges be filed after a year-long investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server, even though he called her handling of classified information “extremely careless.”

Still, even as the FBI cleared Clinton for the second time, Trump argued that “the investigations into her crimes will go on for a long time.”

“The rank-and-file special agents at the FBI won’t let her get away with her terrible crimes,” Trump said.

CNN’s Ashley Killough contributed to this report.