FBI Director James Comey might have broken new ground by slamming Hillary Clinton for carelessly handling classified intelligence while recommending that no criminal charges be brought against her, former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, Comey announced that the FBI would not recommend charges against Clinton based on a criminal probe into her use of a private server and email account. Comey said that while the FBI did not find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, it did find evidence that Clinton and her staff were "extremely" careless in handling highly classified information.

"I don’t know where Comey gets off making a characterization other than to say that they [FBI] have deferred [and] have basically decided not to prosecute," Akerman told Sputnik on Tuesday. "I bet you can’t find… one FBI finding like that."

Comey’s remarks about Clinton’s carelessness in handling information, Akerman noted, were inappropriate and above and beyond what is normally done when the FBI does not find enough evidence to charge someone after an investigation.

"I can’t even imagine a prosecutor who says he is going to decline to prosecute and [then] starts talking about recklessness and getting into the middle of the whole controversy."

Comey’s assertion, Akerman added, that some of Clinton’s work-related emails were deleted was "total speculation."

"The FBI does not deal in speculation — they’ve got tools to go into hard drives and determine whether there is stuff [emails] there."

The FBI’s decision, Akerman also claimed, had nothing to do with Bill Clinton's recent meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch or any other political factors, especially considering Comey is a Republican.

Akerman doubted that Clinton’s actions reached the bar of "gross negligence," otherwise the FBI would have supported criminal charges against her.

On Friday, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she would fully accept the recommendations from both, FBI and Justice Department career professionals, on how to proceed in Clinton’s case.

A separate civil case is ongoing by watchdog Judicial Watch, which deals with finding the content of Clinton‘s emails she did not submit to the State Department upon finishing her tenure as secretary of state.