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FBI's Discovery Of Abedin Emails Occurred Weeks Ago; Trump Campaigns In Battleground Colorado; Source: Abedin Did Not Know E- mails Were on Device; Sen. Reid to Comey: You May Have Broken the Law; How The Market Could Predict The Next President; Trump Leads Clinton in New NYT Florida Poll; Sources: FBI Discovered Clinton Aide's E- mails Weeks Ago. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 30, 2016 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, 6:00 p.m. Eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. So glad you're with us this Sunday evening.

We begin with politics. At any moment Donald Trump will step up to a microphone to rally his supporters in Colorado. He's there for two straight days do show you the importance of this state to the campaign.

We do begin though with breaking news on that FBI review and to newly discovered e-mails on the computer of Hillary Clinton's close aide, Huma Abedin. Why do these e-mails matter? Because the FBI says they may be pertinent to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server.

Law enforcement sources telling CNN today the FBI discovered the new e-mails weeks ago, but the bureau did not close that discovery until Friday. The time line raises many new questions specifically about why the information was kept under wraps until the FBI notified Congress on Friday, just 11 days before the presidential election.

How will the Trump campaign react tonight to this new timeline? We'll hear from the candidate in just a moment. He will speak again at that rally in Colorado.

But first, let's get the details and the timeline and the thinking of the bureau from Evan Perez, our justice correspondent. Walk me through this.

It was baffling to a lot of people that Comey came out with this, but without a lot of information on Friday. Now we're learning he's known about these e-mails for weeks.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: That's right, Poppy. He did know for weeks. The FBI team that was doing this investigation, the investigators who were working on the Anthony Weiner sexting allegation investigation, they've known since early this month.

That's when they first took possession of Anthony Weiner's computer and they stumbled upon these e-mails that were from Huma Abedin. That triggered a lot of internal discussion at the FBI.

Certainly it caused some legal problems because they had a search warrant that was limited only to Anthony Weiner and the allegations that he was exchanging explicit communications with an underage girl.

That led to a lot of internal discussions. We're told that the team there, they did a lot of technical work to try to figure out how many e-mails there were to see how big of a problem this was.

We're told that by mid-October, James Comey, the FBI director, was aware that this was being done. There might be something having to do with the Clinton e-mail investigation. Again, he knew his team was working on it.

We're told it wasn't until on Thursday that the investigative team had completed its work and felt that they could brief the FBI director. That's when he learns exactly how big of an issue this is.

There are significant number of e-mails that were found on this computer that belonged to Huma Abedin. Poppy, some of the work being done was examining metadata that showed that some of these e-mails, a significant number of these e-mails had gone through the Clinton e- mail server.

That's the reason why or that's when the FBI investigators knew enough that this was pertinent to the Clinton e-mail probe.

HARLOW: So let me ask you on that point because you've heard a lot of Trump supporters come on the program and say obviously, these e-mails are significant to the investigation into her server because otherwise why would Comey say this at all.

And yesterday, frankly, Evan, we didn't know that he even knew of the existence of e-mails for weeks. I think everyone thought he just found out about them the day before on Thursday and then let Congress know on Friday.

Given that he has known about their existence now for weeks, does this give us anymore indication as to if he's actually seen the e-mails or seen e-mails that he believes are indeed significant?

PEREZ: Well, here's what is happening behind the scenes or what was happening in the intervening weeks. They were trying to figure out how many e-mails there were, what they were, and how relevant they were.

One of the things again that they were doing was looking at the metadata to see the path of these e-mails. That gave them without looking at the content that gave them the ability to say, OK, this is related and we have to get a search warrant so we can start looking at the content of these e-mails --

[18:05:10]HARLOW: So he has not looked at the content of the e-mails at all?

PEREZ: He's not been able to look at the content. That's one of the reasons why we're not likely to hear more from him. I know there's a lot of pressure both from the Clinton campaign, which is rightfully asking more questions and from Republicans on the Hill, who say that they deserve to get more information as well.

The voters obviously deserve to know more. Right now, the FBI is in a point of view that they don't know more. They have to do a lot more work before they can tell the public more about what was found.

HARLOW: Evan Perez with the reporting, thank you so much. Soon Donald Trump will speak at this rally in Colorado tonight. We'll watch closely and see what he has to say about this new timeline obviously.

That's where we find our Jim Acosta, senior White House correspondent. What do we expect to hear from Trump tonight? Because interestingly, the Clinton camp and the Trump camp were actually asking for the same thing, they both want to see these e-mails before the election.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think in terms of expectations, what you'll hear from Donald Trump, e-mails, e- mails and more e-mails. Poppy, this candidate, his campaign, his supporters are positively giddy ever since the development that came crashing down on Friday that the FBI is looking at these new e-mails that came to light as part of the investigation into Anthony Weiner's sexting investigation.

Now Donald Trump campaign has something to talk about unflattering news cycles that have adversely affected this candidate in the past. Take the case in point earlier today when Donald Trump was in Las Vegas talking to supporters, he was actually thanking Anthony Weiner, somebody he's railed against at rally after rally. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a feeling they just found a lot of them, don't you think. Huma. They just found a lot of them. We never thought we were going to say thank you to Anthony Weiner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now keep in mind, earlier this year Donald Trump he was really going after Jim Comey, the FBI director, the FBI, they were saying for weeks that and Donald Trump was saying this in front of his supporters that they thought that the FBI was a part of this rigged election.

That they took pass on indicting Hillary Clinton because they were a part of this conspiracy to get Hillary Clinton elected president. Now you hear Donald Trump, the Trump campaign, top campaign advisors all rushing to Jim Comey's defense.

And so yes, while you're hearing, Poppy, right, both the Clinton campaign and the Trump campaigning saying, yes, put as much information out there as possible. There's a huge difference in terms of the way this campaign is talking about the FBI and the FBI director in light of what happened on Friday -- Poppy.

HARLOW: There is indeed. He's being introduced there. As soon as he comes on stage, we'll listen in to the candidate. Jim, thank you very much for that.

Let's talk more about this. Get a little more insight into what is going on. I'm joined by CNN legal analyst, Paul Callan. He is a criminal defense attorney and a former prosecutor.

Also with us, David Gergen, CNN senior political analyst and a former advisor to four U.S. presidents. David Gergen, let me go to you first, given this new timeline, given that the FBI new about the existence of e-mails that were potentially relevant to the Clinton e- mail server investigation for weeks and came forward with them 11 days before the election.

How does that change the game here? Does that help Hillary Clinton at this point in time in her argument on this?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it's made it even more urgent that Mr. Comey, the FBI and the Justice Department clear the air and tell us much more fully and authoritatively what's going on here.

We've had a torrent of leaks from the FBI and the Justice Department that are conflicting, confusing and that have opened the door for opponents of Mrs. Clinton to go after her when there may be something there but we don't know enough.

But think about this, we don't know what Mr. Comey knew and when he knew it. We don't know at this point if they really want to get to the bottom of it, they need a warrant. The Justice Department needs warrant.

A legal authorization for the FBI investigators to search this laptop computer and figure out what these e-mails are. Why haven't they got the warrant already?

If there's an urgency here and Mrs. Clinton is demanding information from them, they don't have warrant to begin to tell us, that's crazy.

We've got all this conflicting information about how many e-mails there are. One report says a thousands, other report says 10,000. Another report totally unconfirmed says in total there's 650,000.

[18:10:11]Nobody knows how many there really are. I just think it's more urgent than ever with so few days left to get to clear the air.

HARLOW: Paul Callan, to the point of warrant. I mean, they could get one tonight. We don't know, but how likely is it that a judge will give them this?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think there is a strong probability that a judge would issue a warrant. This is an ongoing investigation being conducted by FBI. If there's potential information on Huma Abedin or Anthony Weiner's computer relevant to this criminal investigation and there's reasonable cause and probable cause, there are different standards that he used for different kinds of seizures of property, I think a judge would issue a warrant.

Frankly, I have to agree with David. You know, the thing that shocks me, Poppy, is when Comey had that press conference back in July essentially clearing Hillary Clinton, obviously there was enormous amounts of information the FBI hadn't even looked at.

When you think about this, this investigation is about e-mails going through her personal server and were there classified e-mails. All of her aides have computers. All those aides have family members who maybe they communicated with as well.

HARLOW: They were supposed to turn them over. Frankly, David Gergen, we wouldn't be having this discussion had Huma Abedin, right, handed over this shared laptop to the feds when they asked for every device.

GERGEN: Absolutely. Absolutely.

CALLAN: Let me add one thing, too, on the shared aspect of it, getting back to the warrant question. If it was a shared computer, they don't even need a search warrant. Huma Abedin can turn it over herself because she's a co-owner of it.

HARLOW: That's very important point. I wanted to get your take on that, David Gergen. In the spirit of transparency, which is something that Hillary Clinton has struggled with in terms of, you know, people who have questions about her is the question of transparency. Should Clinton, Huma Abedin, turn over this computer? They have the device. Should they say you don't need a warrant? We're not worried about what's here.

GERGEN: Of course, she should. I think it's an open and shut case. Let's be fair. She has been -- the FBI described her as very cooperative witness in this. She's been under oath. They talked to her.

I mean, one of the mysteries here is how can she have not turned it over earlier so this would have been cleared up and under the circumstances if there's any question mark about warrant, of course, she should let them go in and see it because her own boss is saying let's get it out.

HARLOW: I wanted you all both to weigh in on this something that I found really interesting. Let's listen to Trump. We'll get right back to you.

TRUMP: In nine days, we're going to win the state of Colorado and we're going to win back the White House. We are. I must tell you, the ballots, we got to get the ballots in. Who have sent the ballots in?

Do you think those ballots are properly counted? Do you think? When you send them in, do you think they're properly counted? You can check on your balance to make sure it's counted properly. I know they're saying of course, everything is so legitimate.

Perhaps I'm a more skeptical person. Nobody's upset with that. I saw Obama saying the foundations of our country are based on this, but eight years ago when he was running, he was saying that it was crooked as hell in Chicago.

Just like he said Obamacare is wonderful. Keep your plan. Keep your doctor, right. You can get a ballot if you need it tomorrow. You can get a ballot tomorrow at university center. You can put your ballot in but so important. We're on the threshold of something so incredible. It's so incredible.

It's so excited, but you got to get those ballots. You can go to university center. They will give you a ballot, a new ballot. They will give you a new ballot. You can go out and make sure it gets in.

In some places they do that four or five times. We don't do that. That's great. By tomorrow, hopefully everybody will almost have their ballots in. We're on the cusp of an incredible historic change. It's going to transfer power from a failed political establishment.

[18:15:07]And it looks like it's failing pretty big right now and return the power to our families, communities, and citizens so the early voting is under way. Get those ballots in. Real change becomes with immediately repealing and replacing Obamacare. What a mess.

It's just been announced that the citizens of Colorado are going to experience a massive double digit hike in their Obamacare premiums next year. I know what it is, but I want everybody to have a good time so I refuse to tell you because I don't want to ruin your evening.

By the way, there are thousands of people outside. You have the Denver Broncos, your team is playing right now. When I came over, I said isn't Denver playing right now. They said yes. I said do we have people?

They said Mr. Trump, this thing you could have sold it out three different times so that's great. Should we do a little shorter version so you can go home and watch football? No. I love you too. I don't know if you know the NFL is way down in their ratings. You know why? Two reasons.

Number one is this politics is a much rougher game than football and more exciting. We've take a lot of people away from the NFL. The other reason is Kaepernick. Kaepernick. That's fine. Elect me and we will stop the horrible hikes that you're seeing with Obamacare.

We will stop the Obamacare madness. Ninety percent of Colorado counties are losing insurers next year as a result of Obamacare. Some of you will have one person, one group to deal with. That's not good. Good luck in the negotiation.

In Minnesota where the premium increase will be close to 60 percent, the Democratic governor has said the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable. Hillary Clinton wants to double down on Obamacare, make it an even more expensive. In fact, much more expensive.

She also wants to raise your taxes through the roof. Lots of luck like taxes aren't high enough for the people of this country. I'm asking for your vote so we can replace Obamacare and save health care for every family in Colorado and in the country and in the country.

Real change also means restoring honesty to our government. My contract with the American voter begins with a plan to end. Our plan -- our plan includes a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.

I will impose a lifetime ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for Americans. I don't want to have them raising money. Who knew they could even do that? Then you wonder why we're making bad deals.

We make all these horrible deals with other countries. People say wonder why. Take a look. We will impose a ban permanent ban on that. I want the entire corrupt Washington establishment to hear and to heed our words.

OK, our words, ours. When we win on November 8th, we are going to Washington, D.C. and we are going to drain the swamp. We are. We all know about Hillary's mounting legal troubles that she's brought onto herself with her willful and deliberate criminal misconduct.

Hillary Clinton is not the victim, by the way. She's not the victim. You the American people are the victims of this corrupt system in every way. This is your last chance to change it. This is your last election where you'll have a chance.

If we don't win between Supreme Court justices and all of the other things that are going to be so important, it will be very, very sad, very sad. I honestly believe and I think most of the people in this room believe that this will be your last chance to win. Not going to happen again.

[18:20:07]By the way, we're leading in so many polls. We are leading by four points in Florida. Of all people the "New York Times" just put us in four points up in Florida. That's low. They have lines in Florida. Early voting that are stretching four and five blocks. They've never had lines before.

People walk in, they vote. We're leading in Iowa. We're leading in North Carolina. We're leading in the great state of Ohio bigly. We're leading all over the place. We're leading numerous national polls and those polls are all before the bombshell of corruption that was additionally exposed or exposed for a second time on Friday.

This was all before the big bombshell, these polls came out. I don't know what that's going to mean. I can tell you I wouldn't be voting for her. We could speak for days, for weeks, months about Hillary's many crimes against this country and its people and her efforts to conceal those crimes by destroying 33,000 e-mails. I'll be honest, I think that Washington, D.C. sees these rallies we have, the biggest ever. It's one of the great movements of all time. Even the very dishonest media, the world's most dishonest people. They say it. They say it.

It's considered one of the great political phenomena. I will tell you but to me, if we don't get there, if we don't win on November 8th, I don't consider it. A couple of them have said it doesn't matter. What you've done will go down in the history books.

I said maybe for you, not for me. I've spent tremendous hours and energy and tremendous amounts of money, as you know. Think I'll be in for over $100 million. That's 100 million we don't collect from donors and special interests where we have had -- we've had tremendous support.

But where we have had the best support in all fairness is the small donor, the $61, I think it averages, something like $61. No Republican has ever been able to do that. To me it's an honor. If we lose, I'll say it was the greatest waste of time, energy and money of my lifetime.

OK. Forget going down in the history books. We're going to win. I think we're going to win. When you read Wikileaks and you see Podesta. I would fire him so fast. He speaks so badly about her she's got bad instincts.

She's -- I won't even say it. He says things about her that I won't say about her. Do you believe it? I would fire him so fast, whoever he is. I don't think I ever met the guy. He says such bad things about her and others say such bad things.

It's amazing what you learn from looking. I tell you what, if she never heard the word e-mail, do you think she would be a very happy woman today?

It was just learned, by the way, that they found 650,000 e-mails on the current investigation of somebody else. You know in the diamond business and the coal business, it's called we're putting the miners back to work. This could be the mother lode.

This could be the 33,000 that are missing. This could be the 20,000 that are missing. This could be the 15,000 that are missing. Three weeks ago they're missing a big box of e-mails. Think of it, 650,000.

What do you have to do to do 650? If you sat and did like this, one, two, three. You'd be there for weeks, 650,000 e-mails. Any way, they have 650,000 that they found. It was just reported.

[08:25:11]I would think they have some real bad ones. We'll find out. Maybe not. Maybe not. No doubt in the next nine days, Hillary and her special interest will say and do something to detract from her crime and to distract and also to distract from the issues facing our country.

As the Obama campaign once said Hillary will say anything and change nothing. You know who said that? That was President Obama. Everybody so nice and they're hugging and kissing. By the way, President Obama should not be focused on Hillary Clinton getting elected.

He should be focused on bringing you jobs back, on beating ISIS. And for years I've heard the nastiest quote, it was quote that if you can't control your own house, you have no right essentially to be in the White House, right?

I said what a nasty quote, I would never say that quote. I would be so badly criticized for that. I found out three days ago, Michelle Obama was the one that said it about Hillary when they ran against Hillary.

You saw this with Biden. He's a tough guy. He's so tough that he's doing a great job in defeating ISIS, isn't he? He's doing great job in negotiating the Iran deal. They laugh at us.

But he called me to the back of the gym. I dream about that. I dream. I do like this watch, watch. He's down. He's down. He would go down so fast. Somebody said something today that was very interesting.

They said he made that statement. I'd like to take him to the back of the gym. I wish he talked that way to ISIS, right. I'd like to take him to the back of the gym and somebody said, the announcer, these crooked people back here. They were all saying oh, what a wonderful statement.

It was so wonderful the way he said that. Isn't that great? If I would have said, I'd like to take Biden to the back of the gym, they'd say he's a bully. He's a mean, mean, horrible man. Right? He's a horrible man.

With Biden they thought it was nice. One person even said that was so cute. Oh, boy. We'd better win on November 8th. Got to get rid of this crew. You know, Hillary said that she was going to make him secretary of state.

Now he turned it down. The guy's exhausted. He's almost as tired as she is but not quite. She said he was going to be secretary of state. They said do you have a comment. I said yes. These are the guys that have been raising taxes.

These are the guys that came up with Obamacare. These are the guys that can't beat ISIS. These are the guys that let drugs pour into our country. We have no border. We have no anything. Murder rate is the highest it's been this 45 years.

Who the hell wants him as secretary of state? These people are there. We want to have fresh, strong, smart, tough people but people with heart. We want people with heart.

I will continue to address and expose the criminal corruption of Hillary Clinton and its threat to the survival. I also want to spend these next nine days with the wonderful people of this country talking about my vision for making America great again and let's talk positive.

Let's talk positive. I'm starting to think we'll go positive because you know, it's all bad borders. Our military is depleted. Let's talk about fixing our military. We're going to talk positive.

At the core of my contract is my plan to bring back jobs. Right now, 70 million American women and children live in poverty or near the brink of poverty, 43 percent of African-American school age children live in poverty, 34 percent of Hispanic school-age children live in poverty.

[18:30:10] There are 40,000 homeless veterans, our great people. Do we have any veterans in the audience?

(APPLAUSE)

Yes, a lot. Forty thousand homeless, yet we spend hundreds of billions of dollars providing benefits to illegal immigrants. We take care, in many cases, of illegal immigrants more so than we take care of our great veterans that let us be here.

We have a story that was a story over the weekend -- you probably saw it -- a veteran, he lives out of a dumpster. He gets his food from a dumpster. And he was a great veteran, a brave veteran and he lives out of a dumpster. We're not going b to have that, folks. We're not going to have that.

(APPLAUSE)

And Hillary Clinton said the Veterans' Administration is doing just fine. It's not. People are waiting in line for two weeks before they can even -- people are dying waiting in line for a simple prescription or procedure. It's terrible. So we're going to take care of our veterans and the veterans know it. And we are overwhelming. They do polls of the veterans. We are overwhelming, and we're going to follow through unlike these politicians for so many years.

(APPLAUSE)

Hillary's refugee plan would cost $400 billion. That's enough to rebuild the inner cities of America. It's time to put America first.

(APPLAUSE)

As your President, I will go into the poorest communities and work on a national plan for revitalization. We will replace decades of failure with generations of success. We will bring prosperity to our poorest communities and neighborhoods, safety to our most dangerous areas, and hope to those places which have not known hope in a very, very long time.

(APPLAUSE)

And to the African-American community that lives so many in these inner cities, we're going to help. It's unsafe. You can't walk to the store and get a loaf of bread. You get shot. It's unsafe. The education is no good and there are no jobs.

And I always say it. I say give me chance. What do you have to lose? Give me chance. The Democrats have been running this thing for up to 100 years, uninterrupted. And all they do is they want your vote. They want your vote and they'll say, thanks a lot, see in four years. They don't do a damn thing.

So to the African-Americans out there that are watching on television and in the room, I say give me a chance. I will not disappoint you.

(APPLAUSE)

America has lost -- thank you -- one-third of its manufacturing jobs since Bill Clinton signed NAFTA. By the way, the worst trade bill ever signed in history. America has lost, listen to this, 70,000 factories since China entered the World Trade Organization. Another Bill and Hillary backed disaster.

Colorado lost more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs since Clinton's NAFTA and China's trade deals went into effect. We're living through the single greatest jobs theft in the history of the world. What the world has done to us --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump speaking to supporters tonight in Greeley, Colorado. Back with me, David Gergen and Paul Callan.

David, interesting, just a few moments ago, you know, after he dove into the e-mail controversy around Secretary Clinton and clearly, you know, made it obvious that that is going to be his closing argument against her, he said we're going to go positive. Let's focus on the positive things I'm going to do. Then he made the case to African- American voters. Is this a new leaf we're seeing of Donald Trump being turned over in the last nine days?

GERGEN: I don't think, not really. You know, he mixes the positive and negative. He tells you he's going to go positive then he has a scathing critique.

What I do think we're seeing is why these leaks coming out of the Justice Department and out of the FBI are leading to mischief because they're being exploited. Look at what he just seized on. This number that's now out there.

"Wall Street Journal" is saying that there's 650,000 e-mails on Huma Abedin's and her husband's laptop. You know, that number has not been confirmed anywhere, and we have no idea what that number refers to. It's a vast number. It's 10 times higher than what originally we were talking about, the number of e-mails that had been on the server of Mrs. Clinton. So what are we looking at?

[18:35:14] Trump is able to use that against her to create this cloud of suspicion. And I think under the circumstances, having come into this game so late as the FBI did, it's just imperative that they clear these things up. It's not fair to the voters. It's not fair, frankly, to the candidate.

You know, Trump said we're going to have a, you know, positive election. This is not positive. This is about nailing her, if possible. And I just think that under these circumstances, there are so many misleading and possibly wrong-headed assumptions being made. It's really urgent.

And the news is out tonight, by the way. It's still unconfirmed, of course, by CNN and others but there is news that the FBI now has a warrant.

HARLOW: We don't know --

GERGEN: And so, I didn't think that 48 hours --

HARLOW: -- but let's --

GERGEN: We don't know for sure.

HARLOW: Yes, we don't know. Let's just hold off on that. We don't know yet.

GERGEN: We know for sure --

HARLOW: We don't have that reporting yet. But, David --

GERGEN: We don't know for sure, but it makes it urgent in the next 48 hours that they come forward. If they have it.

HARLOW: Stay with me, David Gergen, Paul Callan. I want you both to stay with me because, on the other side of this break, we're going to talk about a scathing letter that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has just sent to James Comey, the head of the FBI, saying he may have broken the law. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:24] HARLOW: Welcome back. We're following new developments in the FBI's review of e-mails linked to Hillary Clinton's longtime aide, Huma Abedin. Some breaking news on that front.

Let me get right to it from our Justice Correspondent Pamela Brown regarding Huma Abedin's reaction to the review of her e-mails on a laptop recovered as part of the investigation of her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner.

Our Pamela Brown is reporting that, quote, the possibility that this device contains any e-mails of hers is news to her. A source familiar with the investigation and civil litigation told our Pamela Brown that. That source went on to say the device, the laptop in question, supposedly at issue belongs to Anthony, not to her.

So, again, the news here, a source close to this investigation saying that is it the possibility that this device contains any e-mails of hers, Huma's, is news to her because that device is one that belonged to her estranged husband, not to her. Now, when you talk about these e-mails, the other development we've

learned is that, apparently, the FBI first learned of these additional e-mails weeks ago in mid-October.

Tonight, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has written a letter to the head of the FBI, James Comey. Here is how that letter begins, "Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information with what appears to a clear intent to aid one political party over another. I'm writing to inform you that my office is determined that this actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election. Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law."

Paul Callan is back with us, as is David Gergen.

Paul, to you, as an attorney, it's not just the Democrat Harry Reid who is writing that. At the same time, a lawyer, a former White House ethics lawyer, who served under former President Bush from 2005 to 2007, Richard Painter, wrote this morning in "The New York Times" something very familiar.

Here is what he wrote. "The FBI's job is to investigate, not to influence the outcome of an election. Such acts could also be prohibited under the Hatch Act, which bars the use of an official position to influence an election."

Paul, could the FBI Director have broken the law?

CALLAN: Well, I don't think that he has violated the Hatch Act. Although, I have to tell you, the Hatch Act is a very serious law, and it restricts participation in political activities by Federal employees.

It's not a criminal statute. You won't go to jail for violating it but you could lose your job. As a matter of fact, you could lose your job or be suspended, of course, of back pay. So it's a very, very serious law and taken seriously.

The reason I say I don't think he violated the Hatch Act is, there are two things that have to happen. You have to engage in an act that could influence the political process. Well, certainly making the announcement about the e-mails could influence the presidential election.

But the second requirement is, you can't have any non-political good legitimate reason for doing it, and Comey has taken the position that he had to do this to update information that have been provided to Congress previously.

But I think, in the end, it's an indication that Comey has lost the support of Democrats and Republicans in his leadership of the FBI. And I think Comey's got to resign from the office.

HARLOW: You do? CALLAN: And I think we need a special prosecutor to get involved in

this case. I mean, it's absurd. The Justice Department which normally supervises the FBI isn't doing its job properly.

HARLOW: Well, let's get to that exact point. David Gergen, Comey's boss is Attorney General Loretta lynch, the head of the Justice Department. Are her hands tied right now from, you know, jumping in here because of, you know, the mess, frankly, that was created when former President Bill Clinton walked onto her plane in June on the tarmac, and they had a private discussion days before the results of the FBI investigation into Clinton's e-mail server became public?

GERGEN: I think she --

HARLOW: Can she not jump in now because of that?

GERGEN: No, I think she can't jump in. She has to recuse herself from that. She has a deputy who could jump in.

To go to the point about the Hatch Act itself, it is a serious law. It is, frankly, not taken very seriously by people who work in government and not as seriously as it might be. But I do think what Harry Reid is doing is, he's showing how furious Democrats are now about this. And one of the concerns they have is a political fallout.

[18:45:08] It's not yet impairing, for anything we can tell, Mrs. Clinton's ability to win the election. It has more of shaking up the polls. But the Democrats are very worried. Harry Reid is very worried about what might happen in his own home state in the Senate race where Catherine Masto, the Democrat, is in a very tight race with Joe Heck, the Republican. And, of course, Harry Reid is concerned about the future control of the Senate as he retires.

HARLOW: Paul Callan, David Gergen, thank you both very much. I have to get a break in here.

CALLAN: Thank you.

HARLOW: But I appreciate you both joining us.

GERGEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Turning now to Wall Street and now this week's "BEFORE THE BELL" earnings and the October jobs report on tap for Wall Street to digest this week. The presidential election also very much part of this equation. Alison Kosik tells us how stocks could react. Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Poppy. Investors are pricing in a Hillary Clinton victory, but maybe they shouldn't be so confident. Over the past three months, the S&P 500 has declined almost 2 percent. And that's bad news for party in the White House.

According to S&P, if stocks slip from July 31st to October 31st, voters replace the party in power 86 percent of the time. That's based on data going back to every presidential elections since 1944. If stocks rise during that period, the party that controls the White House tends to win 82 percent of the time.

The basic idea here, if the economy is growing, people generally want to stick with the same presidential party, in this case the Democrats. But if they are fearful, stocks tend to fall and voters want new leadership. Only nine days left, Poppy, until we find out whether that Wall Street indicator is accurate this year.

HARLOW: Alison, thank you very much. The new CNN MoneyStream app, by the way, folks, is here. It is your favorite business topics all in one feed. Every story, video, and tweet we can take for you. You can download it on your iPhone or your Android device. We'll be right back.

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[18:51:06] HARLOW: Nine days to go until you go to the polls, and the campaign trail is hot. Tim Kaine, Mike Pence, Donald Trump, all speaking live right now in Michigan, Colorado, and Indiana.

By presidential election standards, Florida is more than a prize with 29 electoral votes. The state often determines or can determine who wins the presidency.

Ahem, 2000, remember that? Where the presidency was decided by 537 votes. The fact that Hillary Clinton has been barn storming across Florida this weekend clearly shows how important it is to her. And Donald Trump spent three or four days there last week.

Let's bring in Clinton surrogate, also the mayor of Miami Beach, Philip Levine. Thank you for being here.

MAYOR PHILIP LEVINE, MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA: Thank you.

HARLOW: How do you like being the mayor in a state that is so important?

LEVINE: We always are.

HARLOW: Yes, you always are. Let's talk about the polling because -- let's pull these up, guys -- here is what the Florida polls are telling us now. There's a few different ones.

There is this one from "The New York Times" that shows a four-point gap. And then there's also this NBC/Marist poll that basically has it as a dead heat now. I mean, Trump is trailing Clinton by one percentage point. That is well within the margin of error.

Two things at play here. The retirees, the seniors, are increasingly leaning right in your state, and they are helping Donald Trump because they come out and they vote in big numbers. The burgeoning Latino population in Florida, especially Puerto Ricans, is helping Hillary Clinton. What tells you she's going to be helped more than him?

LEVINE: Well, Poppy, I could tell you this. First of all, Florida has always been close. I mean, you alluded to it in, of course, our 2000 election. In 2012, I think President Obama won by less than 100,000 votes.

What's happening now though, what we're seeing with the early turnout numbers, the early voting, the Democrats are actually surpassing what they did in 2012, which is a good sign for Secretary Clinton.

But I just finished an incredible Mayor's bus tour around the state, and I can tell you the enthusiasm is very, very strong for Secretary Clinton. As long, of course, as that we can make sure we can keep continuing getting the message out.

You know, what happened with this e-mail situation, I'm going to tell you, is incredibly disappointing. As an American, I know a lot of my friends that come from some of these South American dictatorships, they smell something real bad here because in some of these countries, like Venezuela, the law enforcement has been used to change elections. And you know, I think it's very concerning to everybody.

HARLOW: Are you equating Director Comey and what he is doing, right now, to what happened in Venezuela?

LEVINE: Sure. So what I'm saying --

HARLOW: Is that what you're saying?

LEVINE: What I'm saying, Poppy, is this. I said, the FBI, doing what they did, is so disappointing. And it's very alarming. It's very concerning. And I think what they need to do is come out now, be transparent. Let the people know specifically --

HARLOW: What you're saying is this is akin to what's happening in a dictatorship.

LEVINE: Well, I think, by God, a lot of people in south Florida are very concerned because they're seeing how people get elected. And how did this happen? This is so sad.

I mean, let me ask you this, Poppy. I think its's interesting to say. We'd like to see these e-mails. We'd like to find out because there is nothing there. But more importantly, maybe the Commissioner of the IRS now, because of full transparency, should come out and talk about Trump's federal IRS investigation.

HARLOW: It's an --

LEVINE: Let's get the details here.

HARLOW: You mean his audit?

LEVINE: Well, it is an investigation.

HARLOW: Yes. I'm just not --

LEVINE: Clearly, there's no question about it.

HARLOW: For our viewers, you're talking about his audit, right? LEVINE: But to be fair, it's a federal IRS investigation. I think

the Commissioner should come out also of the IRS, and let the people know what's going on.

HARLOW: I want to drill down more -- clearly, you're not a fan of Comey tonight, right? Frankly, both camps want the FBI to release these e-mails.

You said on Fox News earlier this week, just days ago, Director Comey is, quote, above reproach. Now, you're comparing his leadership to a dictatorship.

LEVINE: Poppy, I got to tell you something.

HARLOW: Which is it?

LEVINE: What I really believe is the FBI is not having a very good week, and it's very concerning to all Americans. When you see what Donald Trump said in the second debate when he said, I'm going to launch an investigation, I think all Americans should be concerned. But he said this --

HARLOW: Well, he said he would appoint a special prosecutor which, frankly, our legal analyst, Paul Callan, just said is necessary at this point.

LEVINE: Right.

HARLOW: Let me ask you this. Do you agree with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who just penned this letter tonight to Director Comey, saying that he may have violated the Hatch Act and he may have broken a law? Do you agree?

[18:55:03] LEVINE: Well, Poppy, I can tell you this, I'm not an attorney. I'm somebody that's a mayor of Miami Beach and entrepreneur. And when something doesn't feel right, doesn't smell right, my business sense and other sense comes into play. And it's very concerning.

So I think the key --

HARLOW: Do you want Comey to resign?

LEVINE: No. I think what needs to happen is the FBI needs to come forward and say, what is it that you have here? You did a thorough investigation. You acquitted her and said there was nothing there.

All of a sudden, you found a laptop where some forwarded e-mails are. I mean, come on, Poppy. Ten or 11 days before an election, the most important election probably in world history? This does not feel good to most Americans. And Americans that are coming --

HARLOW: Do you think Comey's trying to sway the election?

LEVINE: Well, you know what it is, I think something happened in the FBI, and I think we need to have an investigation. HARLOW: But answer the question, are you saying he is swaying the

election?

LEVINE: I think we need an investigation of the FBI to understand, how did this happen? Because, historically, we all believe the FBI is above reproach.

HARLOW: I'm running out of time. Do you think Comey is trying to sway this election?

LEVINE: I think the FBI made a big mistake.

HARLOW: That's not an answer.

LEVINE: That's what I think happened, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. Mayor, thank you.

LEVINE: Thank you.

HARLOW: We appreciate it. Ahead in the NEWSROOM, the very latest coming into CNN on the review of these e-mails. We'll have it all for you at the top of the hour. Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[18:59:32] HARLOW: 7:00 p.m. Eastern. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

We begin this hour with breaking news on the FBI probe into the newly discovered e-mails on the computer of Hillary Clinton's close aide Huma Abedin, a computer she shared with her husband. Why do these e- mails matter? They matter because the FBI says they may be pertinent to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server.

Law enforcement sources tell us here at CNN the FBI discovered these new e-mails, we now know, weeks ago, but the Bureau chose not to disclose that discovery until Friday. This timeline raises new questions about why the information was kept under wraps until FBI notified Congress on Friday, just 11 days before the election.