The Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has had a tough few days after the FBI said last week it was looking into emails that may be connected to her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state in the Obama administration.
Mrs Clinton has said she is confident the new inquiry will not change the FBI’s original finding in July, which criticised her but cleared her of any illegal acts.
The Clinton camp have questioned the timing of the announcement. Two senior Democrats have now called for an investigation into the role of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump surrogate.
In an interview on Fox News on Friday morning, Mr Giuliani appeared to suggest he knew about the inquiry before it was announced, saying: “I had no role in it. Did I hear about it? You’re darn right I heard about it.”
Democratic Representatives Elijah Cummings and John Conyers wrote to the Justice Department on Friday afternoon asking for an investigation into the source of the information to Mr Giuliani.
“Leaking this information to former FBI officials as a conduit to the Trump campaign is equally intolerable,” they wrote.
But Mr Giuliani later denied having prior knowledge of the inquiry, telling CNN he had not received advance notice: “No, I’ve spoken to no current FBI agents.”
Mr Trump is currently ahead in Ohio, according to a state polling average by Real Clear Politics, while Mrs Clinton leads by a small margin in Pennsylvania.
National polls have suggested that the Republican candidate has gained substantial ground on his rival in the last week or so. That momentum also appears to have helped him in several key battleground states.
