Clinton’s email use dubbed careless but not criminal

WASHINGTON — FBI Director James Comey announced today Hillary Clinton and her staff were “extremely careless” with sensitive emails, but he will not recommend criminal charges against them.

“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 told reporters at FBI headquarters late this morning.

Comey’s announcement marked the end of a painstaking investigation of Clinton’s email use during her tenure as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. During those four years, she sent and received over 60,000 messages from a nongovernment-sanctioned address. Today, Comey revealed, of the emails returned to the State Department, 110 emails in 52 email chains contained classified information, with eight email chains containing top-secret information at the time they were sent. The FBI director said Clinton and her staff had no business using a personal account for such sensitive information, but concluded there was not sufficient evidence to pursue an indictment.

Comey stated the FBI found no evidence of willful destruction of emails in an effort to conceal them. Clinton used myriad devices and purged emails from her account periodically, but not in a way the FBI deemed unlawful.

Investigators spent thousands of hours piecing all of the information back together and admitted that many of the messages could not be found. But, based on the facts on hand, the FBI will not recommend criminal charges against Clinton.

“In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts,” Comey said. “All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.”

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week she would accept whatever guidance the FBI gave her in respect to Clinton’s case. The FBI’s conclusion today essentially places the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the clear after questions of her email use plagued her campaign for nearly a year.

Yet, the FBI found many instances of risky activity, possibly exposing the U.S. to security threats.

During her time as secretary of state, Clinton routinely sent and received messages outside of U.S. borders using her private account. Comey said the FBI could not find evidence of a successful hack into her account from bad actors, but there was no way to prove it never happened.

When asked to turn over work-related emails after Clinton left office in early 2013, she deleted more than 30,000 messages her staff labeled as personal.

According to the FBI, her lawyers sifted through her account to determine which emails were State Department-related and deleted all the rest. The FBI uncovered thousands of the deleted messages, finding three that contained classified materials. But many are lost forever. “The lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery,” Comey said.

Investigators found Clinton’s lawyers did not read each email they deleted, but purged chains of messages based on headers and keyword searches.

Donald Trump, Clinton’s likely opponent for president this November, fired off a series of angry tweets after Comey’s announcement: “FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow!”

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also expressed disappointment and said he fears the future implications of not prosecuting Clinton.

“While I respect the law enforcement professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation,” he said. “No one should be above the law. But based upon the director’s own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent.”