--- title: Donald Trump Criticizes FBI over Hillary Clinton Email Case description: Donald Trump renewed criticism about a "rigged system" Tuesday, after the FBI recommended no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton canonical: https://time.com/4393399/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-fbi-email-case/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-05T16:19:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:59.112Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Criticizes FBI Recommendation in Hillary Clinton Email Case og:description: FBI Director James Comey recommended that no criminal charges be brought og:url: https://time.com/4393399/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-fbi-email-case/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9618ff05f80f313e/69889aa08e0601b09d4668fa/donald-trump-clinton-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5472 og:image:height: 3078 og:image:alt: Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump And Sarah Palin Address The Western Conservative Summit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Criticizes FBI Recommendation in Hillary Clinton Email Case twitter:description: FBI Director James Comey recommended that no criminal charges be brought twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9618ff05f80f313e/69889aa08e0601b09d4668fa/donald-trump-clinton-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Slams 'Rigged System' After FBI Recommends No Criminal Charges for Hillary Clinton > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 5, 2016 4:19 PM UTC  Donald Trump, presumptive Republican presidential nominee, speaks during the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on July 1, 2016. Donald Trump, presumptive Republican presidential nominee, speaks during the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on July 1, 2016. Matthew Staver—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 5, 2016 4:19 PM UTC Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump renewed criticism of a “rigged system” of government on Tuesday, after [FBI Director James Comey](http://time.com/4276988/jim-comey-hillary-clinton) recommended that [no criminal case be brought](http://time.com/4393271/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/?xid=homepage) against Hillary Clinton over her [use of a personal email server](http://time.com/3739541/transcript-hillary-clinton-email-press-conference) as Secretary of State. “Although there is evidence of potential violations, our judgement is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” Comey said. “We are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.” Trump responded immediately on Twitter. “The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment,” Trump [posted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/750352884106223616) . “FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem,” [he added](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/750353319084843008). Other Republicans and conservative pundits echoed his disappointment, questioning Comey’s judgment and Clinton’s fitness for the presidency. > [](https://twitter.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/750353165061541888) > [](https://twitter.com/BillCassidy/status/750355003626426368) > [](https://twitter.com/AriFleischer/status/750359461487841281) > [](https://twitter.com/GovBrewer/status/750352920890060801) > [](https://twitter.com/RepJeffDuncan/status/750352596209111040) > [](https://twitter.com/seanspicer/status/750352571886407681) > [](https://twitter.com/RepGosar/status/750352438083936257) > [](https://twitter.com/RepLynnJenkins/status/750352245284302848) > [](https://twitter.com/DarrellIssa/status/750355661876322304) Other conservatives who have opposed Trump attacked Clinton, while arguing that Trump is ill-prepared to defeat her. > [](https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/750356813120466944) > [](https://twitter.com/rorycooper/status/750350817148997632) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4393399/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-fbi-email-case/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4393399/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-fbi-email-case/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Slams 'Rigged System' After FBI Recommends No Criminal Charges for Hillary Clinton","datePublished":"2016-07-05T16:19:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:59.112Z","description":"FBI Director James Comey recommended that no criminal charges be brought","url":"https://time.com/4393399/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-fbi-email-case/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9618ff05f80f313e/69889aa08e0601b09d4668fa/donald-trump-clinton-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9618ff05f80f313e/69889aa08e0601b09d4668fa/donald-trump-clinton-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump And Sarah Palin Address The Western Conservative Summit","caption":"Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump And Sarah Palin Address The Western Conservative Summit","creditText":"Matthew Staver—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4393399/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-fbi-email-case/","name":"Donald Trump Slams 'Rigged System' After FBI Recommends No Criminal Charges for Hillary Clinton"}}]}] ```