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Speaking to high level donors on Saturday, Hillary Clinton pointed to the release of two letters by FBI Director James Comey in the last days of the campaign regarding “possibly pertinent” emails found on a laptop of a close aide as the moments that the election shifted.

“There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful,” said Secretary Clinton, a donor told The New York Times. “Our analysis is that Comey’s letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum.”

The letters were a break in usual protocol regarding the FBI’s handling of information regarding investigations.

From Huffington Post:

After reviewing thousands of emails earlier this year and declining to bring criminal charges against Clinton, Comey released a letter at the end of October announcing that the agency had found additional emails and was reviewing them. The FBI provided no information about the emails at the time, and Trump used the announcement to fuel speculation that Clinton had done something wrong.

Comey went against Justice Department policy in releasing the letter to Congress.

Just over a week later, days before Election Day, Comey released a second letter saying the FBI had found nothing new in the emails and would not change its recommendation not to bring charges.

Clinton claimed the second letter, which cleared her once again of wrongdoing, was more harmful than the first, according to multiple reports. Navin Nayak, head of the Clinton campaign’s opinion research division, also made that point to staffers in an email sent Thursday.

“We believe that we lost this election in the last week,” Nayak’s email, which was obtained by Politico, said. “Comey’s letter in the last 11 days of the election both helped depress our turnout and also drove away some of our critical support among college-educated white voters—particularly in the suburbs. We also think Comey’s 2nd letter, which was intended to absolve Sec. Clinton, actually helped to bolster Trump’s turnout.”

In thank-you call with top donors @HillaryClinton blames first Comey letter for stopping her momentum and second for energizing Trump voters

— Anne Rumsey Gearan (@agearan) November 12, 2016

I explored this train of thought last night on my BlogTalkRadio show. You can listen to me dissect the issue here.

In a conference call with her campaign staff and volunteers today, Hillary Clinton admitted that her loss in the presidential race this past Tuesday had weighed on her heavily. But she offered encouraging words saying she hoped they would stay engaged in the political process.

From the Huffington Post:

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it: These have been very, very tough days,” Clinton said. “This is a tough time for our country. I think we have seen how people have been reacting to the events of this election and I know we have got to be reaching out to each other to keep it clear in our own minds that what we did is so important. It looks like we are on the path to winning the popular vote, and that says volumes about the importance of your work and the lasting impact it will have.”

Clinton thanked her backers for the work they put in, calling the campaign “one of the greatest honors of my life.” And she encouraged them to remain politically engaged in the future.

“This is a hard loss for all of us because we know what was at stake in this election and we have to do everything we can to continue to support the causes we believe in,” she said. “When you’re ready, I hope you will get up and back in there and keep fighting.”

Clinton was photographed Thursday taking a hike with her dog at a hill near her New York home, the first image of her since Wednesday morning. She encouraged those depressed over the loss to regroup and find their own therapeutic remedy. “Take your dogs for a walk,” she said.