Hillary Clinton appears to have dodged a legal bullet today with the FBI Director recommending that she not face criminal charges over her use of a private email server while Secretary of State. But the bombshell announcement hardly means the controversy is behind her. Our Grace Rauh has the story.
The FBI says there should be no criminal charges for Hillary Clinton. However, FBI director James Comey sharply criticized the presumptive Democratic nominee over her email practices at the State Department.
"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," Comey said.
Comey said 110 emails on Clinton's personal server contained classified information at the time they were sent or received. That finding flies in the face of Clinton's repeated claims that she kept classified material off her personal server.
"I never sent or received any material that was marked classified," Clinton said.
Comey also raised questions about Clinton's judgment. While the FBI did not uncover evidence that the former Secretary of State was hacked, Comey says it is possible hackers were able to break into her account.
"None of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system," Comey said. "But their presence is especially concerning because all of these emails were housed on unclassified personal servers, not even supported by full-time security staff."
A spokesman for Clinton's campaign said in a statement:
"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. We are glad that this matter is now resolved."
Resolved may be going too far. The Justice Department is not expected to bring charges after this recommendation from the FBI. But questions about Clinton's emails and her insistence that she did not put classified information at risk are sure to follow her to the general election.