WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 31 (DPI) – The disclosure Friday that the FBI is re-examining Hillary Clinton’s use of confidential emails instantly tightened a presidential race that was widely seen as a runaway. The announcement by respected FBI Director James Comey, who had dropped an investigation into Clinton’s email use in July, upended not only the election season but also any perception that the nation’s most important law-enforcement institution can steer clear of politics and partisanship.

Against the advice of his bosses at the Justice Department but apparently under pressure from the Bureau’s rank and file,  Comey decided to write a letter to Congress explaining that Clinton emails were also found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop, and hasten further investigation. The FBI had been undertaking a separate investigation of Weiner, the sex-obsessed former congressman, who until recently was married to Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin.

Naturally Comey’s disclosure has turbo-charged the campaign news cycle, and has amped up partisans on both sides – many Democrats accused Comey of violating the Hatch Act, which bars government officials from meddling in elections. Today, former Attorney General Eric Holder penned an op-ed saying Comey, whom he respects, made a “serious mistake.” The more than 2,300 reader comments attached to Holder’s op-ed suggested that partisans have not changed their minds, with the most popular comment calling on Comey to apologize to Clinton – and resign.

Thus, the latest revelation out of the FBI – at least as of this writing – seems unlikely to change the outcome of the election, even though it augurs very poorly for a successful administration for Hillary Clinton. The first woman president will likely be dogged for years by her family’s Clinton Foundation activities while she was secretary of state. Defined as corruption or not, such activity was staggeringly inappropriate for any high-ranking government official to be engaged in.

Just this weekend, after Comey’s announcement, respected former FBI official James Kallstrom called the Democratic candidate the member of a “crime family.” As Charles Krauthammer wrote in August of the Clinton Foundation:

The foundation is a massive family enterprise disguised as a charity, an opaque and elaborate mechanism for sucking money from the rich and the tyrannous to be channeled to Clinton Inc. Its purpose is to maintain the Clintons’ lifestyle (offices, travel, accommodations, etc.), secure profitable connections, produce favorable publicity and reliably employ a vast entourage of retainers, ready to serve today and at the coming Clinton Restoration.

Indeed, the Clinton Foundation activities insert a major question mark over Clinton’s ongoing use of a private email server while she headed the State Department.  Did Clinton use that server to engage in illegal activity? The email transgression might be explained away as “old people using new technology” – but with business activity at the Clinton Foundation being transacted with foreign governments while she was Secretary of State, there’s potential for a much more sinister narrative.

In that respect, the entire email controversy is completely of Hillary Clinton’s making, and while she may win the election next week, she will be weakened substantially by the ongoing allegations. And the integrity of major American institutions like the FBI has been called into question as well.