--- title: Hillary Clinton Emails: FBI Recommends No Charges description: FBI Director James Comey says "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a criminal case against Hillary Clinton over her email server. canonical: https://time.com/4393271/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-05T15:22:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T06:48:54.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: FBI Recommends No Criminal Charges Against Hillary Clinton in Email Case og:description: FBI Director James Comey says "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a criminal case against Hillary Clinton over her email server. og:url: https://time.com/4393271/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a86bcd026732ff0/69889a993c1639067b45de8c/clinton-classified-emails.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton in Chicago og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: FBI Recommends No Criminal Charges Against Hillary Clinton in Email Case twitter:description: FBI Director James Comey says "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a criminal case against Hillary Clinton over her email server. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a86bcd026732ff0/69889a993c1639067b45de8c/clinton-classified-emails.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # FBI Recommends No Criminal Charges Against Hillary Clinton in Email Case > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a5ab2915-4257-4e8b-a366-4b7cd433dee5&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: FBI Director Comey on Clinton Email Probe [Watch (HLS stream): FBI Director Comey on Clinton Email Probe](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sczRGEYk.m3u8) (1:21)  _Published 2016-07-05. FBI Director James Comey will recommend no charges be brought against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server and account while she served as Secretary of State._ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:48 AM UTCPublished: Jul 5, 2016 3:22 PM UTC FBI Director James Comey will recommend no charges be brought against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server and account while she served as Secretary of State. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:48 AM UTCPublished: Jul 5, 2016 3:22 PM UTC [FBI Director James Comey](http://time.com/4276988/jim-comey-hillary-clinton) said Tuesday that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring a criminal case 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, though he criticized her handling of the emails. Comey said that 110 of Clinton’s emails [contained classified information](http://time.com/4186530/hillary-clinton-emails-top-secret-intelligence/) at the time they were sent and received, adding that Clinton and her staff were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information and that it’s possible “hostile actors” could have gained access to the server. “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 \[the\] Justice \[Department\] our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.” He said the FBI found “no intentional misconduct.” “This is not to suggest that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences,” Comey added. “To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.” The Justice Department will make the final decision on whether to bring charges against Clinton now that the FBI’s investigation has concluded. Attorney General Loretta Lynch previously said she expected to follow the FBI’s recommendation. At issue in the investigation was whether Clinton’s use of a private email server and account while she served as Secretary of State violated federal law and whether the email account was hacked at any time. While in office, Clinton used several different servers and numerous mobile devices to read and send email on that personal domain, the FBI Director said. Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said that her campaign is “pleased that the career officials” overseeing the investigation “have determined that no further action by the department is appropriate.” Clinton turned tens of thousands of the emails over as part of the investigation, but during the probe the FBI discovered thousands more work-related emails that had not been shared, either because they had been deleted or because they had been marked as personal, Comey said. Of those, three were classified at the time they were sent or received. Comey, though, said the FBI found “no intentional misconduct” in Clinton’s lawyers’ efforts to sort work-related emails from the server. The email scandal has cast a shadow over Clinton’s presidential campaign, with many on the right, including presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, calling for her indictment. “It is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton,” Trump tweeted over the weekend. “What she did was wrong!” The scandal was back in the headlines last week after former president Bill Clinton met with Attorney General Lynch at an Arizona airport. Lynch said last week the conversation was strictly personal and had nothing to do with the email investigation. ## Transcript 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 evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. In looking back at our investigation, [ INAUDIBLE ] Into the mishandling or removal of classified information. We cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information. Or vast quantities of information. Exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct or indications of disloyalty to the United States or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here. To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequence To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions but that's not what we're deciding now. As a result 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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4393271/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4393271/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/"},"headline":"FBI Recommends No Criminal Charges Against Hillary Clinton in Email Case","datePublished":"2016-07-05T15:22:10.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T06:48:54.000Z","description":"\"Our judgement is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case\"","url":"https://time.com/4393271/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/","keywords":["FBI","Hillary Clinton","James Comey"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a86bcd026732ff0/69889a993c1639067b45de8c/clinton-classified-emails.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a86bcd026732ff0/69889a993c1639067b45de8c/clinton-classified-emails.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton in Chicago","caption":"Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at the Rainbow Push Women's International Luncheon in Chicago on June 27, 2016.","creditText":"Zbigniew Bzdak—Chicago Tribune/TNS/Sipa USA","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/fbi/","name":"FBI"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4393271/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/","name":"FBI Recommends No Criminal Charges Against Hillary Clinton in Email Case"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"FBI Director Comey on Clinton Email Probe","description":"FBI Director James Comey will recommend no charges be brought against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server and account while she served as Secretary of State.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/sczRGEYk/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-07-05T16:40:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sczRGEYk.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4393271/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/","duration":"PT1M21S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4393271/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```