US Senator Ridiculed for Suggesting Russia May Be Behind New Clinton FBI Probe

FBI Director James Comey made the announcement on Friday, saying that investigators discovered previously unseen emails.

"Where have these documents come from? How did the FBI get to them? Where are they? We have all this stuff going on with Russia right now. All of the WikiLeaks issues. Stolen documents that we don't even know if some have been manipulated or not manipulated," Ryan said, referring among other things to the so-called Podesta Emails.

The Senator mentioned that the FBI has already conducted an investigation relating to Clinton's use of a private email server when she headed the US Department of State. The agency, he added, came to a conclusion that Hillary "did not do anything wrong."

"The question is where did these documents come from? How did they get to the FBI? Is Russia involved? We don't have any clue where this stuff is coming from," he concluded.

US officials and politicians, including the Democratic presidential hopeful and her supporters, have previously accused Russia of hacking into servers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and trying to influence US election, a claim Moscow has vigorously denied.

​It appears that some on social media have grown tired of these claims, with one Twitter user, Michael Allen Martin, exclaiming, "Give it a rest."

"When I first saw this quote, I laughed, thinking it was a funny and sarcastic comment. Turns out this nut is serious!" Chris Aubert, a Trump supporter, said on Twitter.

Ryan's remarks have prompted another Twitter user, Andrew Klavan, to observe that Moscow has apparently been mentioned "because everything damaging to Hillary is Russia's fault."

​Meanwhile, Howard Dean, the 79th Governor of Vermont and former Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), claimed that "Comey put himself on the same side as Putin," adding that the FBI director "tried to do what he thought was right," but "totally botched the presentation and may have destroyed the credibility of the FBI forever."

​Russian officials have repeatedly said that Moscow has in no way influenced the election process in the United States and does not intend to do so.

"Does anyone seriously think that Russia can somehow influence the choice of the American people? Is America a banana republic or what? America is a great power," Russian President Vladimir Putin said, commenting on these claims.