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WhileHillary Clintonis busy trying to put the Democratic primary race behind her and pivot to the general election against presumptive G.O.P. nomineeDonald Trump,the past several days have served as a stark reminder that Clinton is not yet clear of a potential scandal that still threatens to derail her campaign: the F.B.I. is nearing the completion of its investigation into her use of a private server to send classified e-mails, with the results expected be released before November.

Negative headlines about Clinton’s e-mails have seemed to be reaching critical mass in recent days. On Monday, the State Department revealed that itcouldn’t findany e-mails fromBryan Pagliano,Clinton’s senior I.T. staffer when she was secretary of state. Pagliano had been responsible for setting up Clinton’s private server in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, making his testimony and communications central to the F.B.I. probe into any potential wrongdoing, yet four years’ worth of his e-mails had mysteriously disappeared. (A spokesperson later clarified that some number of his e-mails had been recovered from other accounts.) On Tuesday,The New York Times published an articledetailing how Clinton’s State Department regularly used unclassified government networks to communicate and send classified e-mail to each other, and noted that Clinton’s private e-mail server was weakly protected compared even to these already insecure networks. The same day,The Washington Post reportedthat top Clinton aideCheryl Millsand her lawyer had walked out of an interview with an F.B.I. investigator when she was asked questions “that her lawyer and the Justice Department had agreed would be off limits.” And on Wednesday, F.B.I. DirectorJames Comeyforcefully pushed back against the euphemistic characterization of the probe by Clinton and her allies as a “security inquiry,”telling reportersthat it is indeed an F.B.I. investigation. He declined to say whether the federal probe was “criminal.”

The sudden re-emergence of Clinton’s e-mail scandal comes at a precarious time for the presumptive Democratic nominee, who has been trying to capitalize on the recent chaos in the G.O.P. to solidify her position vis-à-visBernie Sandersand sway potential anti-Trump defectors to her side. TheF.B.I. investigation, into whether she improperly used a private server to prevent her communications from being entered into State Department records, has legitimized her opponents’ criticisms that she is untrustworthy, amplifying the impact of other, past scandals—including her husband’s—that Trump has sought to resuscitate on the campaign trail. (It certainly doesn’t help that she deleted nearly 30,000 of her e-mails before turning over paper copies of 52,000 pages of e-mails to the State Department.)

There’s alsoa growing fearabout the timing of the F.B.I. investigation, with speculation in some corners that the results—and a possible indictment—could drop during or after the Democratic convention, causing untold damage to Clinton’s campaign. (Comey has said, however, that the investigation is not“tethered to any external deadline”.) Clinton’s on-again, off-again confidanteSid Blumenthalhas suggested there’s no need to worry,telling CNN’s New Dayon Wednesday that his “understanding” is that there will be no indictment, but he has been known tohave faulty intelligencebefore.

11 Times Hillary Clinton Had Something Worth Whispering

U.S. CHIEF OF PROTOCOL, AMBASSADOR CAPRICIA PENAVIC MARSHALL

By Greg E. Mathieson Sr./MAI/Landov.

HUMA ABEDIN

By Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

BILL CLINTON

Peter Turnley/Corbis.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

By David Longstreath/AP Images.

BARACK OBAMA

Horacio Villalobos/EPA/Corbis.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY) DURING CLINTON'S STATE DEPT. CONFIRMATION HEARING