CBS legal correspondent Jan Crawford said "you could not indict the leading Democratic candidate for president" without a "very strong case" in analyzing the decision by the FBI to not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton for her private email server conduct.
FBI Director James Comey delivered a withering statement about Clinton's email server and her carelessness on Tuesday, laying out multiple examples showing Clinton had lied about various aspects of her private system.
However, he elected not to recommend charges, in spite of calling her and her colleagues "extremely careless" with classified material.
Crawford summarized Comey's remarks by saying that despite his sharp words for her conduct, he had concluded Clinton's sloppiness didn't rise to the levels of criminal conduct.
"There are a lot of unusual things about this investigation, including the FBI interviewing someone on a holiday weekend and announcing she should not be prosecuted just three days later, and then watching the director making such a detailed statement on why he is not recommending prosecution," Crawford said. "But I think the bottom line here is that you could not indict the leading Democratic candidate for president, I mean months before the election, without a very strong case."
Clinton's email scandal has hung over her presidential campaign for more than a year. Republican opponent Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that a fix was in to allow her to escape criminal charges.