Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch speaks at a press conference on June 22. Lynch says DOJ will not pursue charges against Clinton The announcement comes just hours before FBI Director Comey will testify before Congress.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Wednesday said the Justice Department has decided not to pursue charges against Hillary Clinton or her aides and will close the investigation into her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

The announcement comes a day after FBI Director James Comey held a press conference in which he said “no reasonable prosecutor” would pursue a case against Clinton, even though she and her staff were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified material.


Lynch's statement provides further relief to Clinton, whose presidential campaign has been dogged by the email scandal, which spawned myriad probes and lawsuits, some of which will continue even as the DOJ’s investigation ends.

“Late this afternoon, I met with FBI Director James Comey and career prosecutors and agents who conducted the investigation of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email system during her time as Secretary of State,” Lynch said. “I received and accepted their unanimous recommendation that the thorough, year-long investigation be closed and that no charges be brought against any individuals within the scope of the investigation.”

Lynch had previously said that she would accept the FBI’s recommendation, a declaration that came after Lynch came under fire for an impromptu meeting she had with former President Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac late last month.

Donald Trump seized on that meeting and a later New York Times article that said Clinton would consider keeping Lynch in her current role as evidence the system was “rigged” in Clinton’s favor and that Lynch had been bribed.

"I'm not knocking the attorney general," Trump said during a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday night. "What I'm saying is how can you say that? It's a bribe. The attorney general is sitting there saying, 'If I get Hillary off the hook, I'm going to have more years or eight more years, but if she loses I'm out of a job.' It's a bribe. It's a disgrace."

Trump again hammered Clinton during his rally in Ohio on Wednesday night, using the "Crooked Hillary" moniker before moving on to other topics such as Saddam Hussein and his disdain for CNN.

Clinton’s camp, meanwhile, expressed its eagerness to move past the email scandal. “With the AG accepting Director Comey's recommendation, this case is resolved, no matter Republicans' attempts to continue playing politics," spokesman Brian Fallon said in a tweet Wednesday evening.

The formal announcement from Lynch is hitting just hours before Comey is due to testify before the House Oversight Committee, which is expected to grill the FBI director about the decision to not recommend charges.

Comey on Tuesday delivered a scathing assessment of Clinton’s choice to not only use multiple private email servers, but to use her private email extensively while in the territory of sophisticated adversaries.

He also said that there was no “direct evidence” that Clinton’s email server was successfully hacked, but that investigators concluded that “it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.”

While he provided plenty of fodder for Republicans eager to further damage Clinton’s trustworthiness among voters, Comey said there were doubts about a successful prosecution.

“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” he said.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus strongly denounced Lynch's decision: "By so blatantly putting its political interests ahead of the rule of law, the Obama Administration is only further eroding the public’s faith in a government they no longer believe is on their side."

Clinton’s use of a private email server and account emerged in March 2015, before she formally declared her presidential bid. She has consistently contended she only used the private email server as a matter of convenience and that she never sent or received messages that were classified at the time.

However, she also later apologized and said she would have taken a different approach to her email.

Comey on Tuesday not only used harsh language in describing Clinton’s email practices — he also directly contradicted several of Clinton’s statements about her server.

The conflicts included Comey’s statement that the FBI had found at least 110 emails that were classified at the time Clinton sent or received them, and that the FBI has proof that she did not turn over “thousands” of work-related messages to the State Department — and that there could be many more that will remain undiscovered.

