FBI Releases Documents From Hillary Clinton Email Investigation

Hillary Clinton told FBI investigators that she used a private email server to conduct State Department business “out of convenience" and said she relied on the judgment of aides when it came to the handling of classified material.

The information comes from a trove of documents released Friday by the FBI related to its investigation into Clinton's use of the server, including a summary of its three-hour interview with her at FBI headquarters. The 58 pages of documents also include a report on the bureau's investigation into the Democratic presidential nominee. Both the interview summary and investigation report were partially redacted.

In July, FBI director James Comey said that Clinton's handling of classified information was "extremely careless" but declined to recommend any formal charges against her. The new documents provide additional details on Clinton's use of the server and offer a window into the FBI's investigation.

The release also ensured that discussions about Clinton's handling of classified information will remain one of the key talking points of the presidential race, in which Clinton holds polling leads over Donald Trump both nationally and in battleground states.

The Trump campaign immediately used the reports to criticize Clinton as unfit to hold office.

“Hillary Clinton is applying for a job that begins each day with a Top Secret intelligence briefing," Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement, "and the notes from her FBI interview reinforce her tremendously bad judgment and dishonesty."

In a statement, the Clinton campaign said it was "pleased that the FBI has released the materials from Hillary Clinton's interview, as we requested."

"While her use of a single email account was clearly a mistake and she has taken responsibility for it, these materials make clear why the Justice Department believed there was no basis to move forward with this case."

The FBI's report said that 81 email chains stored on her server contained information that was marked classified, and 68 of those chains contain still-classified information.

The FBI said Clinton could not give an example of how classification of a document was determined and said there was a process in place for that at the State Department before she arrived. She said she relied on career foreign service professionals she worked with to appropriately handle and mark classified information.

For instance, Clinton discussed openly on her server the State Department's targets for potential drone strikes and told the FBI she didn't think those conversations should be classified.

"Clinton did not recall receiving any emails she thought should not be on an unclassified system," the summary of Clinton's interview said. "She relied on State officials to use their judgment when emailing her and could not recall anyone raising concerns with her regarding the sensitivity of the information she received at her email address."

The FBI said it found no evidence that Clinton's emails were hacked, though it could not say definitively that she wasn't hacked since it did not get to inspect every device she used to send email. Marcel Lazher, the Russian hacker known as "Guccifer," said on Fox News that he had gained access to Clinton's server, but he told the FBI that was a lie.

Clinton and Huma Abedin, the only other aide with an email account on the server, were targets of several phishing attempts.

Hackers, though, did infiltrate the emails of some people Clinton corresponded with, possibly giving them access to some of Clinton's emails, the report said.

You can read the documents for yourself below:

Patch's Colin Miner contributed reporting. Image via Rick Uldricks, Patch Staff.

This is a developing story and will be updated.