Unlike the charges, mutinous FBI agents are unlikely to drop their vendetta against Hillary Clinton anytime soon

The rogue agents, as the Democrats describe them, have been accused of being behind a series of damaging leaks about Clinton

James Comey is the most controversial FBI chief since J Edgar Hoover (AP)

Donald Trump has achieved the unique feat in the history of US presidential elections of being backed by the KKK, the KGB and the FBI.

The quip doing the rounds was not, in fact, that far from reality in this extraordinary campaign. Trump, after some hesitation, disowned the KKK endorsement, but will undoubtedly secure a good proportion of the racist vote: The hacking of Democratic Party emails, with the Kremlin the prime suspect, helped the Republican candidate significantly, while the revelation by FBI director James Comey ten days ago of a new investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails wiped out her comfortable lead in the polls.

Comey’s latest dramatic intervention in the campaign - saying on Sunday that Clinton does not face criminal charges after all - has reinforced his reputation as the most controversial FBI chief since J Edgar Hoover. It has done nothing to end the bitter recriminations over the issue: The Democrats can say their candidate has been vindicated, but Trump’s supporters will follow his lead in going back to accusations that the election has been rigged.

Following the FBI’s reopening of the investigation Trump had declared “We have fantastic people at the Justice Department, fantastic people at the FBI”. During most of the campaign, however, relations between him and the security establishment have been anything but fantastic. Such was Trump’s level of suspicion that he had been taking a retired Lieutenant General, Michael Flynn, to classified briefings he has been entitled to as a candidate, in case he was being hoodwinked.

Senior security and intelligence officers have, in turn, been worried about Trump’s statements on nuclear weapons, his admiration for Vladimir Putin, his acceptance of the Russian annexation of Crimea and hiring of men with commercial ties to Moscow. Fifty Republican national security experts warned in a letter that Trump “would be the most reckless president in US history.”

But Trump has benefited from the activities of a small group of FBI agents who are said to be visceral in their hatred of Hillary Clinton. They are convinced of her dishonesty and are incensed that Comey cleared her of criminal culpability, in his first statement on the email investigation. This group played a key role, according to security sources, on Comey writing the letter to Congress ten days ago stating the enquiry has been reopened. They are now angry that, as they see it, the Director has caved in to political pressure and given Hillary, once more, a clean judicial bill of health.

Justice Department and FBI officials point out that a lot of the anti-Clinton cabal’s “evidence” against her comes from a book called “Clinton Cash” by Peter Schweizer who is the president of Government Accountability Institute, a conservative think-tank chaired by Steve Bannon, the CEO of the Trump election campaign. The book, published by HarperCollins, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, was a bestseller, but it was criticized over inaccuracies which led to corrections.

The rogue agents, as the Democrats describe them, have been accused of being behind a series of damaging leaks about Clinton. One of the latest was to Fox News, also part of the Murdoch empire, which claimed that emerging fresh information pointed towards Hillary being indicted over the activities of the Clinton Foundation. A presenter declared “we have at least two sources for this in the FBI”. Fox News later withdrew the claim and apologized for its “mistake”.

But there are prominent Republicans who are openly saying that Hillary Clinton may be impeached if she becomes president. They include Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Ron Johnson and Peter King, senior figures in Congress. One of the most vocal proponents of “lock her up” is Rudy Giuliani, who is an advisor of Trump. Democrats in Congress are demanding an investigation into claims by the former New York mayor that he knew the content of Comey’s letter to Congress last week before it was sent.

The news website Daily Beast has published details of links between Giuliani and current and former FBI agents. Two days before the Comey letter was made public Giuliani talked about “a surprise or two you’re going to hear about in the next few days. We’ve got a couple of things up our sleeve that should turn things around”. After the letter was published he claimed he had heard from current and former agents that “there’s a kind of revolution going on inside the FBI” over the original decision not to charge Clinton and that Comey had been forced by some of his agents to announce the reinvestigation.

Comey may, in the future, give his own version of the turbulent events. He may well face an inquiry into his conduct and, having alienated both the Republicans and Democrats, will find allies in short supply in the Capitol. Investigations of Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, are unlikely to end whatever the result of the election with an alliance of vengeful Republicans and mutinous FBI agents in place.