Hillary Clinton 'extremely careless' in email handling - FBI

                            

The FBI has announced it will not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of private email while she was secretary of state.

FBI Director James Comey said "no reasonable prosecutor" would pursue a case but said the likely Democratic presidential nominee was "extremely careless" with classified information.

The decision ends the legal uncertainty that has dogged the Clinton campaign.

However, Mr Comey was highly critical of Mrs Clinton and her staff.

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information," Mr Comey said.

"There is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump called the decision "very unfair" and said Mrs Clinton's use of private email compromised national security.

Mrs Clinton said she set up the email address for reasons of convenience, because it was easier to do everything from one device than to have several phones or tablets.

Mrs Clinton had previously said she did not knowingly send any classified material from her account.

However, FBI found more than 100 emails that were classified at the time on Mrs Clinton's servers in multiple email chains.

FBI ended its investigation after agents interviewed Mrs Clinton for more than three hours over the weekend about her email habits.

The likely Democratic presidential nominee's use of private email has been a talking point in the election, with critics saying Mrs Clinton believes she is above the law.

Mrs Clinton's campaign says it showed that her practices were consistent with those of other secretaries of state who "also used personal email" and she was "not unique" in doing it.

Mrs Clinton has apologised for using the private email system, calling it "a mistake".

"As I look back at it now, even though it was allowed, I should have used two accounts. ... I'm sorry about that. I take responsibility," she said.

On Tuesday, Mrs Clinton and President Barack Obama will campaign together in North Carolina.