FBI Called Clinton Email Probe 'Special,' Small Team Worked Case

The FBI labeled its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server "special" and it employed a small team from its Washington, D.C., headquarters to conduct the probe, newly released FBI documents show.

The FBI made public several dozen pages of emails Wednesday regarding Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and his wife Jill's Virginia State Senate campaign. In that trove were a handful of references to the Clinton investigation.

McCabe sent an email Oct. 23, 2016 to another FBI official with a timeline of events around his wife's decision to run for office.

"July, 2015: the State IG refers the case to the FBI with the allegation that Clinton had classified email on her personal system," McCabe wrote.

"Some time thereafter, HQ opens a case. I had no role in that decision. I was not consulted in my role as WFO ADIC because (as we now know) the decision was made to investigate it at HQ with a small team. WFO provided some personnel for the effort but it was referred to as a 'special' and I was not given any details about it."

There have been questions whether McCabe should have recused himself from the Clinton investigation, which he became involved with starting in February 2016. His wife's campaign — which ended in defeat in November 2015 — accepted more than $675,000 from the Democratic Party of Virginia and a political organization headed by former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton ally.

Former FBI Director James Comey announced in July 2016 he would not recommend charges in the Clinton case.

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