Hillary Clinton has blamed her defeat in the US presidential election on interventions by the FBI director. 
James Comey's announcement of a new inquiry into her use of email while secretary of state shortly before election day had stopped her campaign's momentum, Clinton said. 
The Democratic candidate was speaking to top party donors in a phone call, which was leaked to the media. 
On 28 October, Comey informed Congress that the FBI was examining newly discovered emails sent or received by Clinton, thus reviving an investigation which had been completed in July. 
Then, on 6 November, two days before the election, Comey announced in a second letter that he was standing by his original assessment - that Clinton should not face criminal charges. 
"There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful," Clinton told the donors on a farewell conference call on Saturday. 
"But our analysis is that Comey's letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum. We dropped, and we had to keep really pushing ahead to regain our advantage," she added. 
According to US media, she added that Comey's later recommendation that she should face no charges had energised Trump's supporters. 
Her campaign team said that despite Clinton being cleared of criminal behaviour, the move only revived Trump's claim that the Democratic candidate was being protected by a rigged system.

Source: QNA