Assistant Director in Charge of FBI’s New York Field Office William F. Sweeney, Jr. (Credit: FBI)
William F. Sweeney Jr. (often referred to as Bill Sweeney) was the Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the FBI’s New York Field Office (NYO) during the Anthony Weiner laptop investigation.
(fbi.gov)
His Role in the Case
In September 2016, as head of the NYO, Sweeney was briefed by agents working the Weiner child exploitation/sexting case (under the violent crimes branch) after they discovered hundreds of thousands of emails on Weiner’s laptop. Many appeared potentially relevant to the prior Clinton email investigation (“Midyear Exam”), including messages involving Huma Abedin (Weiner’s then-wife) and domains like state.gov, clintonemail.com, etc. (oig.justice.gov)
On September 28, 2016, Sweeney reported the discovery (initially ~141,000 emails, later updated to ~347,000) during a secure video teleconference with senior FBI executives at headquarters. He also followed up directly with Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Executive Assistant Directors, and others to escalate the information. (businessinsider.com)
A clipping from Peter Strzok text to Lisa Page on November 3, 2016 titled “Weiner Timeline” is obtained by Judicial Watch via a FOIA request.
This notification helped trigger the chain of events leading to the FBI obtaining a new search warrant (October 30) to review the emails for Clinton-related material, which in turn prompted Director James Comey’s letter to Congress days before the 2016 election. (oig.justice.gov)
Sweeney was not the case agent who first found the emails on the laptop—that was a Special Agent in the NYO’s child exploitation unit (later identified in reporting as John Robertson). Sweeney was the senior NYO leader who ensured headquarters was informed. (washingtonexaminer.com)
He had assumed the ADIC role for the New York Field Office in July 2016, shortly before the Weiner laptop was seized on September 26, 2016, under a federal search warrant tied to the underage sexting probe. (fbi.gov)
This information comes primarily from the DOJ Inspector General’s 2018 report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email and related matters, as well as congressional interviews and contemporaneous reporting. Sweeney was a career FBI agent with a background in counterterrorism and field leadership.
John Robertson
John Robertson was the FBI Special Agent (case agent) in the New York Field Office’s child exploitation/sex crimes unit who was primarily responsible for examining Anthony Weiner’s laptop. (thehill.com)
His Specific Role
Lead examiner of the laptop: Following the FBI’s seizure of Weiner’s devices (laptop, iPhone, etc.) on September 26, 2016, under a federal search warrant tied to the underage sexting investigation, Robertson reviewed the contents. Within hours, he discovered over 300,000 emails (initially noted as ~141,000–347,000), including many between Huma Abedin (Weiner’s wife and Hillary Clinton’s top aide) and domains like clintonemail.com and state.gov. (washingtonexaminer.com)
Discovery and notification: He quickly flagged the potential relevance to the prior Clinton email investigation (“Midyear Exam”). This led him to alert his chain of command, including Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney, who escalated it to FBI headquarters. (washingtonexaminer.com)
Follow-up actions: When headquarters and senior officials (including Deputy Director Andrew McCabe) appeared slow to act for weeks, Robertson grew concerned. He expressed frustration internally, wrote a “Letter to Self” documenting events (to protect himself), and went outside normal channels by contacting the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). This pressure contributed to the eventual reopening of the Clinton email review and Director James Comey’s letter to Congress on October 28, 2016. (washingtonpost.com)
Robertson was described as apolitical and focused on his child exploitation work. He appeared in court proceedings related to Weiner’s case (alongside another agent, Stacy Shahrani) and continued involvement in the prosecution, which led to Weiner’s 2017 guilty plea and sentencing. (courtlistener.com)
Later reporting (e.g., from Devlin Barrett’s 2020 book October Surprise) highlighted his role as the key figure who uncovered the emails and pushed for proper handling, amid claims of delays at higher levels. The 2018 DOJ Inspector General report referenced him (often as the “Weiner case agent”) without naming him at the time. (washingtonexaminer.com)
In summary, Robertson was the hands-on investigator whose forensic work on the Weiner laptop directly uncovered the Clinton-Abedin emails and helped trigger the late-2016 developments in the email probe.