No reason to prosecute Hillary Clinton: FBI

The FBI said on Tuesday that it will not recommend charges over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, but said she had been “extremely careless” in her handling of top secret data.

The decision not to recommend prosecution will come as a huge relief for the presumptive Democratic nominee whose White House campaign has been dogged by the months-long probe.

“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,” FBI director James Comey told a news conference.

“Although the department of justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case,” he said.

Mr Comey made the extraordinary disclosure as he announced that the FBI had wrapped up its investigation and was now handing over to the Justice Department which will take the final call.

“In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order,” he said.

“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 information that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” Mr Comey said.

“We assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account,” he added.

Ms Clinton has already apologised for exclusively using a private email account while serving as the secretary of state.