Former secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking at a campaign rally in Arizona.
FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that Hillary Clinton and her staff were “extremely careless” in handling classified information, but does not recommend criminal charges for using a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
“Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system, in violation of a federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities,” Comey said in a statement.
FBI investigators filtered through the 30,000 emails Clinton handed over to the State Department in late 2014. Of the 30,000 emails, 110 were determined to contain classified information at the time they were received or sent, Comey said.
“None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system,” Comey explained.
“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” Comey indicated, saying there is no evidence that to say there was any intentional misconduct on the part of Clinton or her staff members.
While the Department of Justice will make the final decision, after months of investigation, the agency expressed that “no charges are appropriate in this case.”
