Hillary Clinton's email scandal explained

Hillary Clinton's email scandal explained

Hillary Clinton received a stern telling off from the FBI on Tuesday over her use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State.

However, she will not face charges over the security breach, clearing the final obstacle in her bid to contest the United States presidency.

FBI Director James Comey said in a statement: "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".

But what led Ms Clinton to the point where she was being investigated by the FBI?

Hillary Clinton's email scandal explained

 

So this has all been going on for quite some time. What did Ms Clinton have to say for herself?

"It wasn't the best choice, I made a mistake," she admitted in March this year. "It was not prohibited. It was not in any way disallowed."

Although the FBI's findings clear Ms Clinton of wrongdoing, that hasn't stopped criticism, especially from her opposition.

Donald Trump, her opponent for the US presidency, said "the system is rigged", and the FBI had exhibited bad judgement.

"FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem" he tweeted.

 

US correspondent Kevin McAleese says Ms Clinton should still be worried about her reputation.

"Her use of private email address could have actually opened up classified information to hostile forces while she was travelling abroad to countries that could have been considered 'America's enemies'," he says.

"But then the FBI director also said they don't have evidence that her email server was hacked, we've got no evidence that her phone was hacked, however, we've also not really got any evidence that her phone wasn't hacked.

"This was a bad day for Hillary Clinton, but it could have been a lot worse."

That might not be the end of it for Ms Clinton either. The FBI could still revoke her security clearance, although that won't stop her receiving national security briefings when she becomes the Democratic nominee for US President.

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