WASHINGTON — The ongoing federal probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server could pose political and legal repercussions, experts said — including the possibility of criminal charges against the former secretary of state deep into the general election campaign cycle.

“The more we know about the server, the more likely it looks like Secretary Clinton and her staffers are in trouble,” said Nathan A. Sales, a Syracuse University security law ?expert who served in both the Justice ?Department and the Department of Homeland ?Security.

FBI officials have declined to discuss specifics about the ongoing investigation, including its timeline. But a former investigator said that a decision on whether to recommend criminal charges against Clinton or her aides could come later this year — regardless of the election.

“I don’t know that there’s any magical cutoff date,” Ron Hosko, former assistant director of the FBI’s criminal investigative division, told The Hill yesterday.

Former House Majority Leader U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said Monday on Newsmax TV that the FBI was “ready to indict” Clinton, ?citing sources inside the agency.

Sales said that if investigators find evidence Clinton knew or had reason to know that classified information was stored on her private home server, they could recommend that the Justice Department convene a grand jury.

“To put it in Nixonian terms, the question is what did Hillary know and when did she know it?” said Sales.

Other experts said the potential that Clinton will face criminal charges is a long shot.

“It depends on whether the FBI knows anything that we don’t,” said Kel McClanahan, an attorney with the public interest law firm ?National Security Counselors.

That some emails have been deemed ?confidential after the fact is not enough for criminal charges, McClanahan said. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be political ?ramifications.

“Is she politically liable for setting up a system of allowing that to happen? Completely,” McClanahan said. “Is she criminally liable? I wouldn’t think so.”

GOP strategist Ford O’Connell said the ongoing probe, even without a criminal charge, could turn independent voters off of Clinton.

“Even if she isn’t indicted, in a general election you are talking about a very small number of voters deciding” a close race, O’Connell said.

“It comes down to how independents feel about it.”