That seems plausible. It seems to me, however, if the FBI were serious about obtaining Hillary’s emails in the first place, they would have approached the NSA. The fact they did not “go the extra mile” investigating a matter this serious is a sure sign they have been compromised from the get go. Why the current revelations? Pure CYA in view of the fact Hillary’s emails are going to go public very soon, Trump is on the rise, and Comey is not about to go down in flames if he can help it no matter who becomes the next POTUS.
Interesting, maybe they did approach the NSA, but needed to find the machine(s) that the perps were storing the emails on. (?)