Donald Trump took to Twitter with his usual bombast in response to FBI Director James Comey's recommendation that charges not be brought against Hillary Clinton for her handling of classified information in connection to private email servers.

"The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment," the GOP's presumptive nominee tweeted.



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In his tweet, Trump was referring to the federal case brought against former CIA Director and high-profile general David Petraeus for mishandling classified information. News outlets reported that felony charges were considered against Petraeus, who in the end pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

Other Republicans also took to Twitter and the airwaves in the immediate aftermath of Comey's announcement to denounce the decision. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan released a statement in which he said the FBI's recommendation "defies explanation."

"Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent," Ryan said. "[T]he American people will reject this troubling pattern of dishonesty and poor judgement."

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus also released a statement in which he said the FBI's findings were "a glaring indictment of Hillary Clinton's complete lack of judgment, honesty, and preparedness to be our next commander-in-chief, and they confirm what we've long known: Hillary Clinton has spent the last 16 months looking into cameras deliberately lying to the American people."

Former New York Mayor and prosecutor Rudy Giuliani, speaking on CNBC, said he was "shocked" at Comey's decision.

"This is, to me, a extremely hard conclusion to justify, specifically Section 793 Subsection F, which makes gross negligence a crime," Giuliani said. "And Jim Comey did say she was extremely negligent, well that's gross negligence."

In fact, in his statement Comey called Clinton and her colleagues "extremely careless" in their handling of sensitive information. He only used the term "grossly negligent" when describing the statute itself.

Appearing on CNBC again later in the afternoon, Giuliani clarified that after going back over Comey's words, "Carelessness equals negligence. Extreme carelessness equals gross negligence."





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Hillary Clinton's official Twitter account showed no immediate response.