What is the Hillary Clinton email scandal about and has it affected US election polls?
THE FBI launched a potential hand-grenade into Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign when its chief announced it was relaunching its investigation into the Democrat candidate's email use just 11 days before the 2016 US election.
However, the charges were dropped and FBI director James Comey revealed that the review did not change the agency’s conclusion from July, when it said that no charges were warranted.
The probe announced by bureau chief James Comey, a Republican, was the second time Mrs Clinton faced questions regarding her email use from private addresses.
The probe first came to light in 2015. A front page article in the claimed her email system was "may have violated federal requirements".
When the first probe concluded in July 2016, her popularity slumped and Mr Trump overtook her in the polls.
What is the latest twist to the email scandal?
The latest email scandal came to light during an investigation into Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Mrs Clinton's closest aide, Huma Abedin.
Mr Weiner, 52, is being investigated for sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old schoolgirl. During the probe, which began in September, prosecutors seized his mobile phone and a laptop.
There have been scant details about the new allegations but the disgraced New York congressman is believed to have shared the laptop with Ms Abedin, 40, who allegedly forwarded some of her emails from her secure government address to a Yahoo account as it was easier to print them from there.
The relaunched probe into Mrs Clinton centres around whether these messages contained classified information. The FBI said it has discovered new emails "in connection with an unrelated case" that appear to be "pertinent to the investigation".
Her campaign manager John Podesta said it was unclear whether any of the emails were even sent by Mrs Clinton.
But reports have suggested thousands of them came from the White House hopeful's server. There are believed to be more than 650,000 emails altogether which will have to be trawled through.
Mr Comey defended releasing details of the probe so early on in the investigation but said it would have been "misleading" to have kept quiet about it.
However it has emerged that the Justice Department had opposed its announcement. Mrs Clinton slammed the "deeply troubling" timing of the release.
What was the original email investigation?
The original investigation into Mrs Clinton looked into her use of a private email address to receive confidential documents while serving as US secretary of state.
Shortly before she was sworn into the post in 2009, she set up an email server at home which she then used for all her emails, both work related and personal. She did not use her government email address which would have been hosted on servers managed by the US government.
She reportedly also set up an email address on her server for Huma Abedin and State Department Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills.
In a press conference she said the reason she set up her own email address was for "convenience" so she only had to carry one smartphone with one email address rather than two. At the time government-issued Blackberry phones were unable to access multiple email accounts according to a report by USA Today.
She has denied that any classified information was sent via her email account. But the inspector general of the US intelligence community, Charles McCullough, told Congress in July 2015 that she had sent at least four messages than contained information derived from classified material - and went so far as to say two of them were "top secret".
The law on whether officials can use personal email accounts changed during the time Mrs Clinton was in office. A new regulation allowed private emails if federal records were preserved in the appropriate archives.
The FBI ruled in July that she had created a security risk as hackers could have accessed her state secrets but they found there were no grounds for prosecution. That month Mr Trump held a 0.9 per cent lead over Mrs Clinton according to - his first lead over his rival.
What affect will the investigations have on the election result?
Before the second email scandal broke, Mrs Clinton had enjoyed a 12-point lead over her Republican rival. But after the news it slumped to just one point according to the Washington Post/ABC poll.
Mr Trump had lost ground to Mrs Clinton after a series of women came forward to publicly accuse him of sexual misconduct. After twelve came forward, he said the accusations were either organised by the Clinton campaign or just women seeking "10 minutes of fame".
The release of a 2005 tape in which Trump bragged his fame allowed him to grope and kiss women also saw his popularity slump despite him trying to pass it off as "locker room talk".
Whether Mrs Clinton will recover her lead will only be seen on polling day, November 8. But even if she does manage to win, the ongoing investigation means her early days in office will be underscored by this saga.
READ MORE
Why was the Hillary Clinton email probe dropped?
Who is winning the Presidential Election and when will the results be announced in the UK?
Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations – who’s made them and what are the charges?
Donald Trump slams Hillary Clinton saying she'll spark a deadly Third World War