James Comey criticises ‘extremely careless’ way in which emails were handled on Hillary Clinton’s private email server while she was secretary of state

The threat of criminal charges hanging over Hillary Clinton was finally lifted by the FBI on Tuesday – just hours before the presumptive Democratic nominee for president was due to begin campaigning with Barack Obama for the first time this election cycle.

At a press conference in Washington, FBI director James Comey announced the end of the year-long investigation into whether Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state warranted prosecution under laws designed to protect classified government data.

Though highly critical of the “extremely careless” way in which emails were handled, Comey said the FBI would not be recommending that prosecutors seek charges in the case.

“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes … our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” said Comey.

Critically, the FBI said that other similar cases in which a prosecution had been sought involved evidence of “willful or intentional” breaches of the rules, “vast quantities” of data or “indications of disloyalty or efforts to obstruct justice”. “We do not see that here,” he said.

“We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the Department is appropriate,” said Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon in a statement. “As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved,” he added.

Nonetheless the detail of the FBI’s investigation is likely to hit Clinton politically. Comey revealed that of the 30,000 emails returned to the state department, 110 emails in 52 chains were determined to contain classified information at the time they were sent.

Eight of those chains contained information that was top secret at the time, 36 chains contained secret information at the time, and eight contained confidential information, the lowest level of classification, he said.

Several thousand work related emails were not among those returned to the government and appeared to have been deleted.

Clinton has always insisted that no classified emails were sent or received using her private account, although some were later reclassified by intelligence officials when the state department began publishing some of the traffic in a transparency exercise.

An indictment could have wrecked Clinton’s election hopes and perhaps opened the door for Donald Trump to become president.

Instead, the FBI recommendation in effect marks an end to the legal threat against her and her staff. Under pressure from Republicans, both Obama and his attorney general, Loretta Lynch, have been forced to stress that there would be no political interference in the FBI inquiry and that the US Department of Justice would accept the conclusion of career officials involved in the case.

The sensitivity of the investigation was nonetheless underscored by the timing of Comey’s remarks – just hours before Clinton was due to board Air Force One with Obama bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, where the two spoke together in the president’s first campaign event of the 2016 election.

Neither acknowledged the emails, and Obama argued at length that Clinton is the “steadiest” and most responsible choice for president. “Hillary Clinton has been tested. She has seen up close what’s involved,” he said. “She’s seen the consequences of things working well and things not working well.

“And there has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office than Hillary Clinton. Ever. And that’s the truth. That’s the truth.”

But Comey’s remarks are likely to cloud what was hoped would be a triumphant dual appearance, particularly if they give fresh ammunition to Trump, who was also scheduled to appear in the state later on Tuesday.

The Republican candidate greeted Comey’s announcement by claiming the “system is rigged”.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem

Despite not recommending charges, the FBI fears some of Clinton’s emails may have been hacked, Comey said although the director said they found no definitive proof of this. “It is possible that hostile actors gained access,” he said.

“We did not find direct evidence that it was hacked successfully but given the nature of the system and the actors involved we would be unlikely to see such activity,” added Comey.

He also revealed that the private email accounts of some of the people Clinton had been in contact with had been hacked.

However it is the damning language used by the FBI in summing up its investigation that is likely to do the most political damage.

“Although we did not find clear evidence that the secretary or colleagues intended to violate laws, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of highly classified information,” said Comey.

He also said that in the case of seven chains of emails that were both sent and received by Clinton, there was “evidence to support that conclusion that any reasonable person should have known that an unclassified server was no place for that information”.

“None of these [classified] emails should have been on any kind of unclassified server,” he added.

The FBI was more forgiving however in the case of the “thousands” of missing emails that it found by piecing together fragments of data on the server.

“There was no archiving at all, so it not surprising that we discovered additional emails,” said Comey. He said the FBI had “reasonable confidence there was no intentional misconduct in that sorting effort [by Clinton lawyers]”.

Shortly after the FBI press conference, Clinton spoke to a gathering of around 7,500 delegates at a National Education Association conference in Washington but made no mention of the case.

Instead she entered the conference hall smiling, with arms aloft, backed by her campaign theme Fight Song by Rachel Platten. The crowd rose to their feet, cheering and clapping their batons together. “We are hearing those thunder sticks all across Washington,” Clinton said. “The NEA is in town and people should pay attention.”

She told the delegates: “I want to say right from the outset that I’m with you.” Her opening remarks focused tightly on schools and made no reference to the FBI investigation.