FBI delivers documents on Clinton email probe to US Congress

[WASHINGTON] The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday it had turned over to the US Congress a number of documents related to its probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

The Democratic presidential nominee has for over a year been dogged by questions about her use of a private email account while she was the nation's top diplomat.

Republicans have repeatedly hammered Mrs Clinton over the issue, helping to drive consistent opinion poll results showing that many US voters doubt her trustworthiness.

The FBI said it had provided "relevant materials" to congressional committees looking into the matter. "The material contains classified and other sensitive information and is being provided with the expectation it will not be disseminated or disclosed without FBI concurrence," the agency said in a statement.

A Clinton aide said the campaign would rather the FBI report were released publicly in its entirety rather than piecemeal to certain members of Congress.

A spokeswoman for the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee said in an email that staff for the panel were reviewing the information classified as "secret." "There are no further details at this time," the aide said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, said in a statement that an initial review of the material showed most of it was marked unclassified, and urged the FBI to make as much of it public as possible.

FBI Director James Comey told Congress last month that Mrs Clinton's handling of classified information while using private email servers was "extremely careless." But he said he would not recommend criminal charges be brought against her.

Mr Comey's statement lifted a cloud of uncertainty from Mrs Clinton's White House campaign. But his strong criticism of her judgment ignited a new attack on her by Republicans, including Donald Trump, her Republican opponent in the Nov 8 election.

'NOT CLEAR EVIDENCE'

The Oversight committee, chaired by Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, had asked the FBI for the complete investigative file from its review of Mrs Clinton's use of a private email server.

The FBI has also provided documents from its investigation to the House Judiciary Committee, an aide said.

Mr Chaffetz and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, also a Republican, last month urged federal prosecutors to investigate whether Mrs Clinton had committed perjury.

They said some FBI findings about her email servers were at odds with her previous testimony to Congress about the matter, for example, her statement that she had not sent or received information designated as classified.

But the FBI, in a letter sent to the committee on Tuesday, said the fact that the agency had uncovered three instances in which Mrs Clinton had received emails containing "(C)" markings, which denote "confidential" information, was "not clear evidence of knowledge or intent" to mishandle such material.

The letter, which accompanied the FBI's investigative documents, noted relevant emails had been forwarded to Mrs Clinton by staff, lacked "header and footer markings" indicating the presence of classified information, and only one email was later determined by the State Department to contain classified information.

Mrs Clinton's fellow Democrats were scornful that Republicans were refusing to let the matter drop.

"The FBI already determined unanimously that there is insufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing," said Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Oversight committee. "Republicans are now investigating the investigator in a desperate attempt to resuscitate this issue, keep it in the headlines, and distract from Donald Trump's sagging poll numbers."

Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he could see little "legitimate purpose" to which Congress would put the FBI materials, predicting that they would be leaked for political purposes.

REUTERS