In a letter Friday to congressional leaders, FBI Director James Comey said he will continue an investigation into Hillary Clinton and certain email exchanges.

Comey’s announcement came along despite the likelihood that some — or all — of the new emails are duplicates of those already seen by the FBI .He even included a written warning to Congress that he “cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant.” Also significant, voting is already underway in many states, and Election Day is coming up fast. And this announcement, coming so close to voting day, violates longstanding Justice Department advisories regarding investigations.

Reacting to Comey’s precedent-breaking October surprise announcement, two former deputy attorneys general, Jamie Gorelick and Larry Thompson, wrote the following  in The Washington Post:

As it stands, we now have real-time, raw-take transparency taken to its illogical limit, a kind of reality TV of federal criminal investigation. Perhaps worst of all, it is happening on the eve of a presidential election. It is antithetical to the interests of justice, putting a thumb on the scale of this election and damaging our democracy.

They say this is damaging to our democracy, but it’s lucky for Gossip Cops (and maybe the GOP & Donald Trump) Comey and the FBI are on the case.