FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that he would not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of private email servers while secretary of state, removing a huge shadow hovering over her presidential campaign.
But Comey administered an extraordinary tongue-lashing to Clinton and her aides, rebuking them for being “extremely careless” in the handling of classified information and saying the presumptive Democratic nominee should have known an unclassified email system was no place to conduct sensitive government business.
The FBI director pointed out that the probe was tasked with examining whether Clinton or her aides had mishandled classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way.
“Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” Comey announced after a lengthy recap of the investigation apparently designed to protect the integrity of his agency in a highly charged political atmosphere.
Comey’s decision not to recommend charges likely removes the threat of prosecution in the middle of Clinton’s campaign for the presidency, but the political fallout will continue. His explicit criticism of Clinton’s conduct offered her enemies a trove of fresh ammunition for their assault on her character, honesty and trustworthiness — one of her biggest vulnerabilities.
In a stunning moment of Washington theatre, Comey stepped up to the microphone to deliver the FBI’s findings just over two hours before Clinton climbed aboard Air Force One to travel to her first campaign event with President Barack Obama. Adding to the tension, he made clear the White House and the Justice Department “do not know what I am about to say.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the White House doesn’t have an official response to the FBI’s announcement, saying the case is still active and in the hands of the Department of Justice.
Earnest added: “I am confident that the President and Secretary Clinton are not discussing the FBI investigation that is completed” on Air Force One. Neither Obama nor Clinton addressed Comey’s remarks during their campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, though Obama praised Clinton’s work at the State Department.
Comey delivered a stern lecture to Clinton and State Department colleagues at her side during her tenure as top U.S. diplomat between 2009 and 2013.
“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.”
In the first reaction from the Clinton camp to Comey’s statement, spokesman Brian Fallon said that the campaign was “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.”
Later, aides said they were relieved by the announcement, even though they know it’s far from being in their rearview mirror.
The findings of the FBI probe immediately detonated on the campaign trail with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump crying foul.
“The system is rigged. … Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment,” Trump tweeted. He later issued a statement in which he claimed U.S. “adversaries almost certainly have a blackmail file on Hillary Clinton,” which he said “disqualifies” her from the presidency.
At a Tuesday evening rally in North Carolina, Trump again pointed to the FBI’s decision as fresh evidence of a “rigged system.”
“Whats going on is very big … for Bill Clinton to go to the plane, then to have what happened … Everybody thought based on what was being said she was guilty. She was guilty. And it turned out that, ‘We’re not going to press charges.’ It’s really amazing,” Trump said as his crowd of supporters broke out in a chorus of boos.
And House Speaker Paul Ryan said Comey’s announcement “defies explanation.”
“No one should be above the law,” Ryan said in a statement. “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.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus blasted the FBI’s decision.
“I certainly don’t understand how you describe a textbook definition of gross negligence, and you have case after case after case of soldiers and other military personnel being kicked out of the military … for things that are far less egregious than what Hillary Clinton did,” Priebus told CNN.
