Politics

FBI Director Comey: ‘Sanctions’ Are Appropriate In Cases Like Clinton’s

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Hillary Clinton’s “extremely careless” use of a private email server that maintained classified information would warrant “security or administrative sanctions” for many government employees, FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday.

While announcing that no charges will be filed against Clinton, Comey refused to absolve the former secretary of state of wrongdoing, suggesting that government employees in cases like hers are often fired or stripped of security clearances.

“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 during his surprise press conference. “To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions.”

But “that is not what we are deciding now,” he added.

Comey repeatedly hammered Clinton during the presser for sending and receiving classified information on her server. He said that Clinton should have known better, but that federal prosecutors would have a hard time making the case that she broke the law.

The State Department has in the past declined to comment on the status of Clinton’s security clearance.

As a Senator and secretary of state, she maintained a clearance in order to access sensitive government information.

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