The FBI’s description of Hillary Clinton’s private email system “completely disputes” the story that the former secretary of state has been telling the American people for the past two years, according to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
“[Clinton] has been saying for more than a year now that she never sent or received anything that was classified at the time and [Comey’s] analysis completely disputes that, her main argument. He speaks of the carelessness of it,” the cable news anchor said Tuesday afternoon.
Comey recommended that no charges be brought against Clinton, and he announced he’d refer the case to the Justice Department.
However, as he spoke during a press conference Tuesday morning, he also noted that the FBI found several troubling details in its investigation of Clinton’s emails. After the press conference concluded, MSNBC’s Tamron Hall turned to Mitchell for analysis.
“It’s going to be very tough. I mean, [Clinton’s team is] going to point to the fact that there is no criminal prosecution recommended,” Mitchell said. “[Comey] also spoke to the fact that it was likely hacked by hostile actors.”
“That would mean Russia, China, even possibly North Korea, the major Internet and cyber war actors, the fact that she used her devices overseas, that it was careless to use, to have classified information stored, not just on the private server, but the fact that she was passing information back and forth to people in the State Department, and they were using the unclassified State Department system, not the classified system,’ she added.
The bottom line, Mitchell added, is that while Clinton and her team are likely relieved the FBI won’t recommend criminal charges, there’s a lot for the Democratic front-runner to worry about with Tuesday’s announcement.
“So, the carelessness and the criticism of that carelessness at the State Department, which he said was unusual in the U.S. government, is also on her watch,” Mitchell said.
“This is politically very damaging, not as damaging as a prosecution obviously, not as legally fraught as the prosecution would be, which could be disabling for a nominee, a presumptive nominee, just weeks before the convention. But the fact is, this is a big political hit. It is not the complete exoneration that they would have hoped for,” she added.
