The F.B.I. agents investigating Clintons use of a personal email account realized early on that they would never have a prosecutable case. While Clinton had violated laws pertaining to the handling of classified material, she had apparently done so out of a combination of technical ineptitude and convenience, and the government had never charged an offender without establishing nefarious motives. As a result, the bureau concluded it didnt have much on the intent side.
You might think this decision made life easier for the F.B.I., which would be spared the ordeal of having to insert itself into a presidential campaign. Instead, it made life harder. The reason for this: The bureau contained what some Department of Justice officials considered hotbeds of anti-Clinton hostility, especially in the Little Rock and New York offices. Stewart describes how F.B.I. officials encouraged colleagues investigating the Democratic nominee with messages like You have to get her and You guys are finally going to get that bitch. James Comey, the F.B.I. director during the Clinton email probe, went so far as to tell Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Its clear to me that there is a cadre of senior people in New York who have a deep and visceral hatred of Secretary Clinton. Those agents leaked regularly to right-wing media sources that the bureau was turning a blind eye to what they saw as Clintons criminality.