FBI director James Comey told reporters on Thursday that he is “personally following closely” an investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
In his first public comments on the email scandal which has roiled the campaign of Clinton, a 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, Comey declined to say how long the investigation would take or whether the FBI would comment when the investigation concludes. The FBI had previously declined to give the State Department any kind of progress report on its efforts to recover documents from Clinton's private email server — including the public information that the agency was investigating the matter.
Related: FBI to State: Can't Help You With Hillary Clinton Emails
Comey also said the rate of increase in Americans seeking to head overseas to join ISIS has slowed.
Comey said ISIS has 20,000 English speaking followers worldwide, a figure which hasn’t gone up much. And while the FBI is confident it does have the resources to help combat the terrorist group’s efforts in the U.S., the pace of investigations — which was stepped up leading up to the July 4th holiday — has slowed down.
Comey said he’s troubled by the increase in violent crimes especially murder — an issue that he said particularly impacts young minority men. He said he couldn’t identify a single cause.
Instead, he says there might be a “Ferguson effect” with police officers reluctant to get out of their cars.
