After the third debate, Hillary, who felt she had performed well, suddenly realized her situation wasn't as rosy as the media portrayed.
So, the little maneuvers began again.
On October 21, Czech police announced that, through cooperation with the U.S. FBI, they had arrested a Russian hacker, Yevgeny Nikulin, in the capital Prague. He was wanted by Interpol for involvement in cyber attacks on the U.S.
The U.S. professional networking site LinkedIn later stated in a declaration that the suspect was linked to a 2012 data breach.
The U.S. Justice Department neither confirmed nor commented on this claim.
Czech police said the Prague city court was considering whether to extradite the hacker to the U.S.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that day, "We will do everything possible to prevent the Russian citizen Yevgeny Nikulin, arrested in Prague, from being extradited to the U.S."
Meanwhile, Martin, who had been pulling strings behind the scenes, quietly introduced the current FBI Director Comey to Trump's team.
This Comey had been brainwashed by Martin three years earlier. The reason he was willing to hand this over to Trump, even at the risk of exposing himself to the Clintons:
First, to showcase his own power and flex his muscles.
Second, because the guy had too much dirt on him—Martin recalled he'd be investigated in a few years anyway—so he might as well use him as a "sacrificial pawn" for one last utility, without fear of repercussions from the Clintons.
With Martin as the intermediary, Comey and Trump's team reached a series of backroom deals.
On October 29, Comey stated in a letter to congressional lawmakers that he had previously testified before Congress that the FBI had concluded its investigation into Hillary's email server. However, during an investigation unrelated to the server case, the FBI learned of a new batch of emails that appeared relevant to the prior probe of Hillary's server.
The FBI investigative team had reported the findings to him earlier, and he agreed that the FBI should take "appropriate investigative steps," allowing relevant personnel to review these emails to determine if they contained classified information.
Comey said he couldn't predict how long this investigation would take or assess the significance of the material, but he decided to first notify congressional lawmakers of the situation.
In the letter, Comey did not reveal the source of this batch of emails.
The New York Times reported on the matter: "...Aggregating recent national polls, Hillary currently leads Trump by 5.2 percentage points and maintains leads in many swing states. The FBI's reopening of the investigation into Hillary will deliver a major blow to her campaign, helping her trailing competitor Trump reverse the decline..."
U.S. mainstream media often referred to the FBI's decision to reopen the investigation as the "October surprise."
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch had announced in July that she would accept the FBI's recommendation and not prosecute Hillary over the "email scandal."
Also in July, Comey had stated that Hillary and her colleagues had been "extremely careless" in handling highly sensitive classified information but had not intentionally violated related laws.
Who could have expected the matter to reverse three months later?
"Bill, can we deal with that bastard (Comey)? The guy took our benefits back then and said he wouldn't pursue the 'emails' any further." Hillary said angrily. "Now he's going back on his word."
Clinton frowned.
He hadn't anticipated Comey's repeated actions either.
"I heard Martin introduced Comey to Trump. I didn't expect that kid to have such influence—I underestimated him."
After pondering for a moment, Clinton continued: "Let's try contacting him again. If it doesn't work..."
Clinton fell silent for a heavy moment. "Hillary, you need to be prepared."
Hillary's eyebrows shot up in fury. "Prepared for what? Losing to that idiot? I'm not willing!"
For Hillary, this year was her best chance. In four more years, her age would become an issue.
Born in 1947, Hillary was already sixty-nine. For a female politician, the golden age was between thirty-five and fifty-five. She was already on the older side now; in four years, she'd be over seventy, with virtually no hope of sitting in the presidential seat.
Clinton shrugged. "Then there's nothing we can do. Learn to accept failure, dear. Besides..."
A hint of malice flashed across Clinton's face. "I won't let that idiot have it easy."
...
Soon, word came back from Comey's side: he refused to engage with Hillary's camp.
This infuriated Hillary even more.
On October 31, the U.S. FBI obtained a search warrant to examine a newly discovered batch of emails related to Hillary Clinton's private server.
Due to the enormous volume of email data, the investigation was expected to take weeks.
The New York Times later cited anonymous law enforcement officials, reporting that the FBI found these emails on electronic devices belonging to Hillary's close aide Huma Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner.
According to NBC, Abedin used a laptop belonging to Weiner to send these emails to Hillary.
Currently, Weiner was under FBI investigation for allegedly sending obscene messages to a minor girl.
Additionally, according to the U.K.'s Financial Times on the 31st, Hillary's campaign team fiercely attacked the FBI Director over the weekend, claiming the FBI's announcement of reopening the investigation less than 10 days before the election would disrupt the race.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Kaine also stepped up to defend Hillary.
He believed that discussing an ongoing investigation so close to voting violated Justice Department protocol.
Moreover, according to Kaine, Democrats thought Comey knew nothing about the content of these emails or whether they were addressed to or from Hillary—it was complicated.
On the Republican side, presidential nominee Trump naturally seized this hard-won opportunity to continue attacking Hillary.
He tweeted: "See? Voting for Hillary means handing the government over to public corruption, irresponsibility, and cronyism. And these threaten our democratic political system."
Some Republicans also stated that the FBI's unusual move suggested these emails contained something valuable.