Top Republicans said Tuesday that the FBI needs to release details of its investigative files on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if it wants voters to accept its conclusion that her carelessness with top secret information doesn’t rise to the level of a prosecutable crime.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said FBI Director James Comey’s decision not to recommend prosecution “defies explanation,” and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley said Mr. Comey needs to do more to convince Americans he made the right call.

“If it wants to avoid giving the impression that the FBI was pulling punches, because many people in a similar situation would face some sort of consequence, the agency must now be more transparent than ever in releasing information gathered during its investigation,” Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, said.

Mr. Comey, in an extraordinary statement earlier Tuesday, detailed a number of Mrs. Clinton’s transgressions, including that her server may have been hacked by enemy agents, that she was reckless in doing top secret business on her private account, and that she and her lawyers failed to turn over all of her government records.

But Mr. Comey said the FBI couldn’t find another example where someone in that same situation had been successfully prosecuted, so he said they would recommend no charges. The final decision lies with President Obama’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Mr. Ryan said voters “need more information about how the Bureau came to this recommendation.”

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