After Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI for more than three hours Saturday morning, FBI Director James Comey has announced that he is referring the case to the Department of Justice for a decision. However, in what he characterized as an “unusual statement in at least a couple of ways,” Comey concluded that “we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.”
Comey detailed the ”painstaking undertaking requiring thousands of hours of effort” involved in investigating Clinton’s email servers to see if emails had contained classified material. In 30,000 emails Clinton turned over, 110 emails contained information that was classified at the time, while 2,000 were up-classified. The FBI also recovered further emails, of which three have been determined to have been classified at the time. “We found no evidence that any of the additional work-related emails were intentionally deleted.”
Comey characterized Clinton and her colleagues as not having intentionally broken any laws but said that they were “extremely careless” in their email practices involving classified information. The FBI found “no direct evidence” that Clinton’s email servers were hacked.
Prosecutors will make the decision about whether charges are appropriate on handling of classified material, but the FBI’s recommendation is that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” Looking at past cases, “We cannot find a case that would support bringing charges.” (our emphasis)Lots of warranted criticism of the carelessness but, as most rational observers have long predicted, no charges are likely now that the investigation has concluded. Let's see if we can get through the rest of the campaign without any more unforced Clinton errors.
BONUS: As recently as 2 days ago, this dead- ender in need of medication was predicting an indictment. Haha HA!
BONUS II: Gotta rub it in:
HA Goodman rn pic.twitter.com/V8sWW0JSBU— daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 5, 2016
