Hillary Clinton dodges prosecution after FBI probe into classified info sent from unsecure email
US presidential rival Donald Trump seizes on rap, saying 'Crooked Hillary compromised our national security'
HILLARY Clinton dodged prosecution yesterday for sending state secrets on her unsecure email.
The let-off followed a probe that jeopardised her White House bid.
FBI director James Comey branded the US presidential hopeful “extremely careless” for sending and receiving 30,000 emails from a personal server for four years.
His probe – which saw investigators read each email – ranked 110 messages in 52 email chains as “classified” with eight of those chains found to contain “top secret” information.
The director delivered a 2,300-word speech – which was immediately seized upon by Hillary’s opponent Donald Trump in the race for the White House – laying into her.
He conceded it was possible that America’s enemies had gained access to her emails.
But he ended his remarks by revealing the FBI was not recommending criminal charges be brought against her – with the Department of Justice now set to rubber-stamp the decision.
Comey, speaking in the US capital Washington, said: “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.
“Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before deciding whether to bring charges – no charges are appropriate in this case.”
Clinton met with the FBI for a voluntary three-and-a-half hour interview on Saturday to discuss the probe, which examined emails she sent from personal servers while Secretary of State.
During his surprise 15-minute speech yesterday, Director Comey revealed that Clinton had used several different servers and “numerous” mobile devices to send and receive the emails.
He claimed that the servers had no 24-hour security and a simple Gmail account had better protection.
Clinton had repeatedly insisted that none of the emails were marked classified at the time they were sent or received.
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Speaking last July, she said: "I am confident that I never sent nor received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received."
The FBI also recovered “several thousand” other emails not handed over by Clinton’s team.
But the agency said it did not believe there was a deliberate attempt to conceal them.
Director Comey said yesterday: “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."
He added: “Any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.”
The FBI said it had found no evidence that Clinton’s account had been hacked – but said it was “possible” that “hostile actors” had gained access to some of her emails.
Clinton’s opponent Donald Trump – who has repeatedly called her ‘Crooked Hillary’ in the US election race – immediately seized on Comey’s comments.
He tweeted: “FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem
“The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment.”