New Clinton Emails Cause Turmoil, Trump’s Companies Deleted Emails and More You Missed in Politics Today

It’s difficult to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in this country and to break through the clutter, so we’re here to make it easier. Here’s what we at Countable are reading today:

1. The Big Story: "Hillary Clinton Emails: What We Know and What We Don’t"

"Thousands of new emails" are being reviewed by the FBI, after authorities discovered them on a laptop shared by longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her now estranged husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). The emails were discovered in a separate investigation of Weiner, who is accused of exchanging sexually explicit messages with a 15-year-old girl. There are as many as 650,000 emails on the laptop, according to the Wall Street Journal, “but it is unclear how many may be relevant to the Clinton email server investigation.”

Meanwhile, FBI Director James Comey has come under fire for sending a letter to Congress about the emails, which remain a mystery, this close to the election. Attorney General Loretta Lynch asked Comey not to send the letter, following a Dept. of Justice protocol against engaging any activities that could alter an election this close to Election Day, but Comey disagreed.

Read more at the USA Today.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to Comey on Monday, arguing that while he was right not to keep the investigation a secret, the FBI didn’t include enough information in its letter. "Without additional context, your disclosure is not fair to Congress, the American people, or Secretary Clinton," he wrote.

2. "Donald Trump’s Companies Destroyed Emails in Defiance of Court Orders"

"Over the course of decades, Donald Trump’s companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders. … This behavior is of particular import given Trump’s frequent condemnations of Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent, for having deleted more than 30,000 emails from a server she used during her time as secretary of state."

Read more at Newsweek.

3. "CNN severs ties with Donna Brazile"

CNN says that it has accepted DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile’s resignation, after e-mails released by Wikileaks showed that she "shared questions with the Clinton campaign before a debate and a town hall during the Democratic primary." Brazile stepped down temporarily from CNN after she accepted the DNC chairmanship, but the network has now severed ties with Brazile, saying it is “completely uncomfortable” with her alleged leaking of a question at a CNN town hall and another a CNN Democratic primary debate.

Read more at Politico.

4. "Iraqi forces make first push into Mosul"

"Iraqi troops broke through [ISIS’s] defenses in an eastern suburb of Mosul on Monday, taking the battle for the insurgents' stronghold into the city limits for the first time, a force commander said." The battle to take Mosul “could take months,” but Monday’s advance marks the beginning “of the largest military operation in Iraq since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.”

Read more at Reuters.

5. "The Life of a Ballot"

NBC News has a really cool interactive up today, showing you how ballots are cast and then counted on election night to determine a winner.

Read more at NBC News.

— Sarah Mimms