FBI recommends no charges for Hillary Clinton over use of email servers

FBI Director James Comey announced on Tuesday that the agency would not recommend that the Department of Justice bring charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of private email servers to conduct official government business as secretary of state.

In a surprise press conference, Comey said the agency's investigation found that Clinton did send and receive classified information on her private email system but noted that there was no evidence that she deliberately attempted to mislead investigators.

The FBI director said Clinton's conduct did not meet the threshold used to prosecute past violators who shared classified information over unclassified channels.

"In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts," Comey said.

He continued: "All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information, or vast quantities of materials 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."

Though the director said there was no evidence to suggesting that work-related emails were intentionally deleted, he offered a blistering criticism of Clinton's email practices.

"To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences," Comey said.

"There is evidence that they were extremely careless in handling classified information," he added.

Comey also said it was "possible" that hostile actors gained access to Clinton's personal email account.

Comey also offered some of the FBI's findings to reporters:

• Eight emails Clinton sent were classified as "top secret" at the time they were sent
• 36 email chains contained "secret" information
• Eight others contained "confidential" information (the lowest level of classification)
• 2,000 additional emails were later "up-classified" to confidential status
• 110 emails in 52 email chains in total were determined to contain classified info at the time they were sent or received

The FBI concluded its investigation after interviewing Clinton on Saturday for more than three hours about her use of several classified servers.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, responding to Comey's press conference in a series of tweets Tuesday, called the agency's determination "very, very unfair."

"FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow!" he wrote, adding the hashtag "#RiggedSystem."

This story will be updated.