FBI Recommends “No Charges” Against Hillary Clinton, by Tyler Durden

Here is the initial Zero Hedge story on the FBI recommendation of no charges against Hillary Clinton. In the next few days SLL will make its contribution to the chorus of editorializing, but this article is primarily posted because it has the full text of FBI Director James Comey statement (if you have the stomach for it; SLL has been unable to muster the necessary intestinal fortitude). For videos of Comey’s announcement click the link to the original story. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

In a surprising statement which concluded moments ago, FBI director James Comey announced that Federal officials have decided not to pursue federal charges against Hillary Clinton for her private email setup, an announcement that will send a shockwave throughout national politics.

In a press briefing at the bureau’s headquarters in downtown Washington, Comey said investigators and prosecutors had concluded there was not sufficient evidence to push forward with an indictment against Clinton, clearing her of a federal investigation that has loomed over her presidential campaign for nearly a year. Comey’s announcement comes just three days after the former secretary of State sat for a 3.5-hour interview with the FBI on Saturday, and just a few hours before President Obama is set to campaign with Clinton in Charlotte, N.C.

The punchline of Comey statement is that Hillary Clinton shouldn’t face charges over her e-mail practices while serving as Secretary of State because there was no “intentional misconduct” and there was “no clear evidence” of intentional violation of the laws.The FBI’s conclusion will now be referred to the Justice Dept for a decision.

He adds that the decision, if agreed to by the Justice Dept, would remove one of the biggest remaining obstacles to Clinton’s presidential bid, putting an official end to questions about penalties for her use of a private e-mail server, though the issue may continue to resonate on the presidential campaign trail

Still, the FBI director admitted that Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless” with e-mail and that it’s “possible” hostile actors gained access to Clinton e-mail system however no direct evidence of it found though.

What is shocking is Comey’s admission that Clinton used not one but several different email servers, adding that 110 emails contained classified information and 8 contained top secret information, he also reported that Clinton did not turn over “several thousand” emails to the FBI and added that due to Hillary’s sloppy set up, it is possible that “hostile actors” got access to Clinton’s emails.

Yet, despite all these “facts”, the FBI has decided not to proceed with recommending charges.

It appears that the FBI is implying that the only reason why no charges will be filed is because there was no “intent”, and yet according to the US criminal code, specifically U.S. Code Section 793 – “Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information” subsection (f), intent in this case is not required for prosection:

Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

As the Hill adds, the juxtaposition is likely to inflame White House critics, who have insisted that political pressures would prevent any chance of an indictment for Clinton, regardless of the damage to national security. Obama has previously weighed in to dismiss concerns about the investigation — to the ire of Republicans and federal investigators.

To continue reading, and for the text of Comey’s statement: FBI Recommends “No Charges” Against Hillary Clinton