A top aide to Hillary Clinton has urged the FBI to disclose what it knows about any ties between Donald Trump and Russia, accusing the agency of unfairly publicising its inquiry into Clinton's email practices while staying quiet about the Republican presidential candidate.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a preliminary inquiry in recent months into allegations that Trump or his associates might have had questionable dealings with Russian people or businesses, but found no evidence to warrant opening a full investigation, according to sources familiar with the matter. The agency has not publicly discussed the probe.
A week before Election Day, the Clinton campaign was trying to contain damage from the announcement by FBI Director James Comey that his agency was looking into new emails that might relate to Clinton's use of a private server while she was secretary of state.
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook questioned why the FBI director had not released any information about the agency's Russia inquiries.
"If you're in the business of releasing information about investigations on presidential candidates, release everything you have on Donald Trump. Release the information on his connections to the Russians," Mook said on CNN.
The FBI inquiry reviewed allegations that Trump or his associates might have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or engaged in contacts or commerce with people in Russia who are subject to US or international financial sanctions.
The US government has blamed Russia for cyber attacks on Democratic Party organisations. Democrats criticise Trump for taking what they say is a pro-Russia foreign policy stance.
Russia's possible role in the campaign again came into focus when online magazine Slate said that a group of computer scientists had been alarmed by records showing thousands of apparent connection attempts between an email server operated on behalf of the Trump Organisation and computers inside a Russian company, Alfa Bank in Moscow.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the server, which had been used to send out hotel marketing material, had been dormant for years.
