FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday he will not
recommend the Department of Justice seek criminal charges against Hillary
Clinton for her personal email use while secretary of state.
The decision helps remove what was arguably the biggest
threat to her presidential campaign going forward – a criminal referral that
could have led to an indictment – just weeks before her party’s national
convention in Philadelphia where she is set to seal her nomination as the
Democrat standard bearer.
Clinton consistently had downplayed the FBI
investigation, even calling it a “security review,” and as recently as June 3
said there was “absolutely no possibility” she’d be indicted. Weeks ago, a
scathing State Department inspector general report directly countered her
long-running claim that her personal email use was allowed, though her campaign
continued to defend the candidate’s actions.
In the wake of that report, presumptive Republican
nominee Donald Trump stepped up his criticism of her email actions and said she
belongs in “jail.”
The DOJ decision does not strip the email controversy as
a campaign issue – Trump and the Republicans are sure to keep hammering it as
the campaign lurches into full general election mode post-conventions – but
shows the federal investigation did not determine the actions to be criminal,
even if they were ill-advised and potentially damaging to national security.
The decision comes more than a year after knowledge of
Clinton’s use of a personal email and server first became public. Clinton
responded at the time with a point-by-point written explanation and a press
conference in which she said she had opted to use her personal server for
“convenience.”
