Medved: Terrible day for Hillary Clinton despite FBI’s recommendations over emails

Tuesday wasn’t a great day for Hillary Clinton. In fact, it was a “terrible day” for the Democratic presidential candidate after the FBI announced it would not recommend criminal charges for her use of a private email server, KTTH’s Michael Medved says.

“I mean, not as terrible had they recommended prosecution,” Medved explained on Seattle’s Morning News.

FBI Director James Comey made the announcement.

Comey said that although the investigation found “extremely careless” behavior by Clinton and her staff in their handling of sensitive information, the FBI had concluded that “no charges are appropriate.” He said the agency believed that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

The announcement came three days after the FBI interviewed Clinton for hours in a final step of its yearlong investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI director and of career prosecutors, meaning that Comey’s decision almost certainly brings the legal part of the issue to a close and removes the threat of criminal charges.

Clinton’s personal email server, which she relied on exclusively for government and personal business, has dogged her campaign since The Associated Press revealed its existence in March 2015.

She has repeatedly said that no email she sent or received was marked classified, but the Justice Department began investigating last summer following a referral from the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community.

The scrutiny was compounded by a blistering audit in May from the State Department’s inspector general, the agency’s internal watchdog, which said that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit said that she had feared “the personal being accessible” if she used a government email account.

“What’s going to be fascinating and determine the long-term political impact is how [Donald] Trump responds,” Medved said. “If he responds by attacking Comey and the system, he’s going to sink his already sinking campaign.”

Trump did exactly that moments after Medved made those comments.

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

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2016

Medved said with the “thousands of disqualifying aspects” of both candidates, voters are in a tough spot.

“Of a great republic of 330 million people, these are the only two people that we can choose?” he asked. “It’s an appalling choice and one that is heartbreaking.”

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