#TBT? Hillary Clinton Recalls Day FBI Reopened Investigation Into Her E-Mails

In late October 2016, the campaign of then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was stunned to learn that the FBI had reopened an investigation into Clinton's e-mails - which drew immense criticism over her having used a private server instead of a corporate one for her correspondence.

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a throwback Thursday - literally - recalling the day when then-FBI Director James Comey decided to reopen the investigation into her infamous e-mails.

She walked down memory lane during a Thursday promotional event for the memoir "Both/And" penned by her aide Huma Abedin.

"It was terrible for me because it just came out of nowhere", Hillary said, referring to the FBI decision. "There was nothing to it. [The investigation] gets reopened, and then Sunday before the election it was like just kidding. It was just so unnecessary".

The FBI's 2016 decision followed the confiscation of a laptop belonging to Abedin's then-husband, Anthony Weiner, a former American politician and convicted sex offender. As part of the probe into the contents of the laptop - particularly Weiner's sexting with a high school student - the bureau had discovered a plethora of e-mails exchanged between Clinton and Abedin.

The move by the FBI to dive back into the so-called "emailgate" did not bring about any new results, with the bureau announcing two days before the 2016 presidential election that they had not found anything new in the e-mails, ruling that there was no wrongdoing by either Weiner or Abedin in their handling of the e-mails.

Looking back at that day, Clinton said that "it obviously impacted the outcome of the election".

The former Democratic candidate also revealed that many people urged her to fire Abedin that day, which she "of course" refused to do.

"I said 'Why is that?' Clinton recalled. "And they said because of what happened. And I said 'What does she have to do with what happened? Why would I fire Huma?'"

Abedin's memoir titled "Both/And" was released on 2 November, with the publisher describing the tome as grappling with "family, legacy, identity, faith, marriage, motherhood—and work—with wisdom, sophistication, and clarity".