FBI Will Recommend No Criminal Charges In Hillary Clinton Email Case

FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that his office will recommend to the Department of Justice that no criminal charges be filed against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State.

Comey called Clinton's conduct "reckless" and said while there was no evidence that her personal server had ever been hacked, he add it was possible. And after a review of more than 30,000 emails that were sent or received on the private server, he said, "Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor" would bring criminal charges against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The findings will now be sent to the Department of Justice.

However, just as Comey recommended no criminal charges, he delivered a tongue lashing aimed at Clinton and her State Department colleagues.

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information," he said, "there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

Comey announced the investigation's findings as Clinton was addressing the National Education Association in Washington, D.C.

The Clinton campaign responded to Comey's announcement, reiterating that using her personal email was "a mistake."

"We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the Department is appropriate. As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again," campaign press secretary Brian Fallon said in a statement. "We are glad that this matter is now resolved."

The FBI director's statement, which followed interviews with Clinton at FBI headquarters on Saturday for more than three and a half hours, came just hours before President Obama and Clinton campaign together in North Carolina for the first time.

For the Clinton camp and her supporters, the announcement will provide closure on a nagging issue that has hung over the campaign for months. For critics who are unlikely to be convinced, it will provide further fodder that the outcome was predetermined and influenced by political considerations.

Comey appeared to anticipate the criticism, saying, "I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation, as there was throughout this investigation." He added: "What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done competently, honestly, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear."

Count among those critics presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who took to Twitter to express his outrage, saying, "The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very unfair! As usual, bad judgment."

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan also criticized the announcement, saying, "No one should be above the law."

The findings Comey announced included:

• FBI agents reviewed all of the 30,000 emails on the server.
• Of those, 110 contained classified information. Eight contained "top secret" information at the time.
• The FBI found work-related emails that were not provided to the State Department, including three that were classified.
• Other emails that Clinton deleted were personal in nature and were deleted just as any normal person would delete emails.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

[Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons]