Long time Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has told the FBI she was not aware any of her emails were on the laptop investigators seized as part of their investigation into Abedin's estranged husband, Anthony Weiner.
The FBI engaged in a back and forth over the weekend with Abedin or her attorney, when Abedin explained the situation.
"She says she didn't know they were there," a source familiar with the investigation said.
After obtaining a warrant to examine the data over the weekend, the FBI is now using a software program that will filter out any emails that investigators had not seen before. Those will be kept in a separate file and will be examined by FBI agents to see if they contain classified material or information relevant to the Clinton probe.
It is not clear what FBI Director James Comey will do with the information once the FBI obtains it. Standard practice is for the FBI not to comment on investigations — but this is not a standard situation. "We're in uncharted territory," the source said.
It is possible that Comey could indicate publicly what the FBI finds before Election Day next week, but that decision has not been made yet.
There are a number of scenarios that would explain how the emails got onto the laptop without Abedin's knowledge, including that they were somehow automatically backed up from the cloud. But investigators will want to know how this happened and if there is any indication that Abedin misled them about the existence of emails.
It is a large project. Agents determined there were as many as 650,000 emails on the laptop, dating back years. The number of emails related to the Clinton investigation is likely to be much smaller.