Report: Department of Justice reopens investigation into Hillary's email server

According to a report from The Daily Beast, the Department of Justice is reopening its investigation into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

In a highly scrutinized decision, the FBI initially closed its investigation into whether Clinton broke the law by maintaining classified information on her non-secure private server when it recommended in July 2016 that no charges be filed.

Former FBI Director James Comey then intensified the controversy by announcing, a few short days before the 2016 election, that the FBI was reopening the investigation due to additional emails that had been discovered on the computer of disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who was at the time married to top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Comey then announced, two days before the 2016 election, that the investigation was closed again and that the FBI still did not recommend that charges be filed.

Clinton has repeatedly blamed Comey's decision to reopen the investigation for her surprise election loss.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly publicly suggested that the investigation should be reopened, and according to the Daily Beast, those calls have been heeded by the Justice Department.

The Daily Beast quoted Justice Department officials close to Attorney General Jeff Sessions who "described it as an effort to gather new details on how Clinton and her aides handled classified material." The investigation may center on Huma Abedin, in particular, who has been specifically singled out by Trump in some tweets.

During the course of its investigation, the FBI found numerous emails that had been transmitted over Clinton's non-secure email server that were or should have been classified.

During his initial news conference announcing the decision not to seek criminal charges against Clinton, and in subsequent testimony before Congress, Comey accused Clinton of having acted without the proper regard for maintaining the security of classified information, but concluded that "our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case" against Clinton.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast on the story.