The FBI has opened a fresh investigation into Hillary Clinton's personal emails following the discovery of new messages.
FBI director James Comey said they will examine whether the new emails - connected to an "unrelated case" - contain sensitive government information.
The announcement, 11 days before the US election, prompted an almost immediate response from Mrs Clinton's Republican rival Donald Trump, who claimed the scandal is "bigger than Watergate".
Mrs Clinton, who is currently addressing supporters at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has not yet responded to the new probe.
The investigation raises the possibility of the FBI reopening the criminal probe into her email activities.
However, in Mr Comey's letter to key Republican committee chairmen in the House of Representatives and Senate, he said he cannot yet tell whether the new messages are significant - or how long the investigation will take.
He wrote: "In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.
"I agreed the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."
An unnamed US official told the Associated Press news agency the new emails did not come from Mrs Clinton's private server.
The FBI spent about a year looking into her use of an unauthorised private email sever for her work as US secretary of state between 2009 and 2013, after it emerged there were classified government secrets in some of her emails.
At a rally in New Hampshire, Mr Trump said: "I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made.
"Hillary Clinton's corruption is on a scale we have never seen. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval office."
He also said the political system "might not be as rigged as I thought", having previously complained Washington had rigged the system against him.
Kellyanne Conway, a spokesman for Mr Trump, said on Twitter "a great day in our campaign just got even better".
Others have queried the timing of the announcement. Republican John Cornyn, who represents Texas in the Senate, tweeted: "Why is FBI doing this just 11 days before the election?"
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