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Residents, lawmakers react to FBI’s recommendation not to charge Clinton in email scandal

Posted at 3:19 PM, Jul 05, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-05 23:16:49-04

NORFOLK, Va. - After more than a year of investigating, the FBI will not recommend chargesagainst Hillary Clinton for using private email servers while she was Secretary of State. According to Director James Comey, Clinton’s actions weren’t intentional.

“Although we did not find evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of extremely sensitive, highly classified information,” Comey told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday.

After the press conference, Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan slammed the FBI stating that “no one should be above the law.”

At an unrelated event, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) called this case more of a lesson learned than a criminal matter.

“I’m not surprised,” Kaine said. “I have long believed that this was not going to be anything more than what Secretary Clinton said [it was]…She said, ‘Looking at it retrospect, I might do it differently now,’ and I think [others] would also say that.”

Meanwhile, Republican State Delegate Scott Taylor, who's running for Congress, said he is surprised. "I think today's developments say to me that she's very careless and reckless, and thinks she's above the law," he said.

Residents in Hampton Roads are also split on the issue.

“I think it’s a dead issue,” said Norfolk resident David Maull. “I wish they would just stop beating her up about it. I mean they obviously haven’t found anything.”

Raphael Sicinsky, a Virginia Beach resident, disagree. “I think that more investigations should be done into it, and she should be charged.”

The FBI, however, wasn’t concerned about opinions; they were concerned about facts.

“I know there are many opinions expressed by people who are not a part of the investigation, including people in government,” Comey told reporters. “None of that mattered to us. Opinions are irrelevant, and they were all uniformed…we did our investigation the right way. Only facts matter.”

Clinton’s campaign responded shortly after the FBI’s press conference, stating they were pleased with the recommendation not to charge Sec. Clinton.

Related stories:

FBI Director on Clinton email investigation: “No charges are appropriate in this case”