Fellowship

Hello! So I recently completed my final round interview for a legal fellowship. I did apply last year and was a finalist as well for the same organization but ultimately did not get the job. Fast forward now I am awaiting for my decision. I completed my final interview March 12th and my references I prof were contact the following Monday and they both had discussions with members of the team on March 18th and 19th, respectively. One of my references explained the conversation was great and that the person she was chatting with (who I would be reporting to) seemed very keen and excited about my candidacy. I was elated to hear this. Most recently however, the person who is essentially serving as my “liaison” for the hiring process replied back to my post interview thank you email (I sent the day after my final interview) on March 24th saying how she appreciated my note and that they are still reviewing candidates. She apologized about the delay in the hiring process and emphasized that this is not typical. She also asked me to update her in the meantime if there are any pressing updates on my part and if my availability has changed. Although this doesn’t scream as a negative I am not trying to put all my eggs in one basket because I unfortunately was not selected for another legal fellowship in January and the HR person essentially sent me a similar email and actually stated that the team was “prioritizing my candidacy” as I previously interned there and I ended up not being selected. I’ve been so stressed because I feel like the legal job market is trash and I haven’t had a full time job yet and I technically accepted an offer as a law clerk for a fed agency but my clearance is actually taking forever so I can’t work. Sorry I got side tracked but any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Do you think there is actually an internal delay or that they likely extended the offer to someone else and just waiting for all that to get cleared?