Jul 2, 2016 5 min read

WASHINGTON – The FBI interviewed Hillary Clinton Saturday about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, her campaign announced after the meeting, as federal investigators neared the end of the probe that has hung over her White House bid.

Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, gave a voluntary interview for 3 ½ hours at FBI Headquarters in Washington, her campaign said.

“She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion,” Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said. “Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview.”

Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment Saturday.

For Clinton, the interview could indicate the Justice Department’s yearlong probe is drawing to a close only four weeks before the former first lady and New York senator is set to be formally nominated as the Democrats’ choice to succeed President Barack Obama.

Clinton’s FBI interview was expected, and it does not suggest she or anyone else is likely to face prosecution. Some legal experts view criminal prosecution as exceedingly unlikely. If Clinton and her aides are exonerated, it might help brush aside a major distraction throughout her campaign that made many voters question her trustworthiness.

But as the past week shows, the case is complicated. Clinton sat down with the FBI just days after her husband, former President Bill Clinton, walked across a hot airport tarmac in Phoenix for an impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Lynch’s husband, who had just landed.

The nation’s top law enforcement official later expressed regret she met with the former president, whose plane was about to depart Phoenix, even though she said it was social in nature and they did not discuss the email review. Bill Clinton nominated Lynch as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Lynch said Friday she intended to accept the findings and recommendations of career prosecutors who have spent months investigating the case.

Clinton’s campaign did not comment on the meeting between Lynch and the former president. But it raised questions about whether it was appropriate given the investigation and renewed calls from congressional Republicans for the appointment of a special prosecutor in the case.

Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, seized on the email issue and repeatedly said the probe undermines Clinton’s fitness for office and suggested she will receive leniency from a Democratic administration. Trump called his opponent “Crooked Hillary” and said she cannot be trusted in the White House.

Trump, reacting to the meeting between Lynch and the former president Friday, said in Colorado: “He opened up a Pandora’s Box. And it shows what’s going on. And it shows what’s happening with our laws and with our government.”

During the campaign, Clinton argued she is more trustworthy than Trump on handling the issues that matter to most Americans: foreign policy, national security and running the economy.

But the investigation also poses an unwelcome distraction just as Clinton vanquished her primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, holds a huge fundraising advantage over Trump and polls show her well-placed to become America’s first female president even as many voters question her honesty.

While she was Obama’s secretary of state, Clinton exclusively used a private email server for her government and personal emails, rather than the State Department’s email system. The Associated Press revealed the existence of the server in March 2015.

Clinton said relying on a private server was a mistake but other secretaries of state also used a personal email address.

The FBI is investigating the potential mishandling of sensitive information. The matter was referred for investigation last July by the inspectors general for the State Department and intelligence community following the discovery of emails that they said contained classified information.

The State Department’s inspector general, the agency’s internal watchdog, said in a blistering audit in May, Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from State Department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit reported Clinton feared “the personal being accessible” if she used a government email account.

Agents already interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who is currently the vice chairwoman of Clinton’s campaign.

The staffer who set up the server, Bryan Pagliano, was granted limited immunity from prosecution by the Justice Department last fall in exchange for his cooperation. The FBI as a matter of course seeks to interview individuals central to an investigation before concluding its work.

The emails were routed through a server located in the basement of Clinton’s New York home during her tenure as the nation’s top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.

Dozens of the emails sent or received by Clinton through her private server were later determined to contain classified material.

Clinton repeatedly said none of the emails were marked classified at the time they were sent or received. As part of the probe, she turned over the hard drive from her email server to the FBI.

The FBI interview comes as Clinton is set to embark on a major week of her presidential campaign. She will join Obama for their first joint campaign appearance Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C., and Clinton will follow it up with an event Wednesday in Atlantic City, N.J., aimed at undercutting Trump’s business practices.

On Friday, Clinton will campaign for the first time with Vice President Joe Biden in Scranton.

Clinton is considering potential vice presidential choices and preparing to formally receive the Democratic nomination July 28 at the party’s convention in Philadelphia.