FBI: Clinton's Actions Were Careless, Not Criminal

FBI director James Comey gave a statement on Tuesday that he would not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of private servers while Secretary of State. He did, however, strongly rebuke Clinton and her aides, calling their collective actions "extremely careless."[caption id="attachment_4844" align="alignnone" width="300"]

James Comey giving a public statement about the investigation into Clinton's usage of classified and unclassified servers during her time as Secretary of State.[/caption]Comey described the investigation through Hillary's servers and mobile devices during her four-year tenure as, "...like removing the frame from a huge jigsaw puzzle and then dumping all the pieces on the floor. ... We searched through all of it." Of the 30,000 emails that Clinton's team gave the State Department, 110 emails in 52 email chains were found to have classified information "at the time they were sent or received," Comey said. Of those, eight chains contained information considered "top secret," which is the highest level of security. These findings were in addition to about 2,000 emails that were determined to have classified information in hindsight.

Despite this, the recommendation from Comey not to press charges rests on the fact that there has been no previous precedent set to charge someone else under similar circumstances. "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 said.It was also stated by Comey that the FBI could not find any evidence of a cover-up of any emails (after finding "thousands" of deleted emails not turned over to the State Department), nor was there any direct evidence that hostile actors gained access to any accounts. However, given that the accounts of others that she corresponded with were compromised, the servers were not under government protection, and that she used her email in hostile territories, "It is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton's email account."Comey stressed the fair and unbiased nature of the investigation by stating, ""This investigation was done honestly, competently and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear... We did our investigation the right way. Only facts matter, and the FBI found them here in an entirely apolitical and professional way."Comey is scheduled to appear before House lawmakers on Thursday to explain his decision further.

Read the full statement from the FBI here.