The Democratic USA presidential candidate was, however, sharply rebuked by the FBI for “extremely careless” handling of classified information.
This happened as United Kingdom (UK) Home Secretary, Mrs Theresa May, comfortably won the first round of the contest to become the next Conservative leader and UK prime minister as David Cameron leaves office in October.
FBI Director, James Comey, said “no reasonable prosecutor” would pursue a case.
The FBI’s decision ends the legal uncertainty that has dogged the Clinton campaign. However, Comey was highly critical of Mrs Clinton and her staff.
There was no clear evidence that Mrs Clinton intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, Comey said.
But he added, “there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”
The FBI’s key findings revealed that it is possible that “hostile actors” gained access to Mrs Clinton’s email account, that there were more than 100 emails that contained classified information when they were sent or received, contrary to her claims, that Mrs Clinton employed multiple email servers and devices that she did not delete emails in an effort to conceal them.
Comey said the FBI did not find that Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate the law, and that there was no “intentional misconduct” by her lawyers who sorted her emails.
He said her staff ought to have known Clinton’s private email was an improper place for classified information, but there was no evidence that anyone had hacked Clinton’s communications.
The FBI found 110 emails in 52 email chains that contained information that was classified at the time the messages were sent, Comey said. Eight of those chains contained “top secret” information, the highest level of government classification for material that could harm national security.
Another 36 email chains contained “secret” information, and eight “confidential” information, he said. Agents also found three classified emails among the thousands Clinton never returned to the State Department.
Comey said there were no previous cases that supported filing criminal charges against Clinton. Other cases had involved intentional mishandling of information, he said, and there was no evidence Clinton knew she was violating the law.
Last year, the FBI recommended that former CIA director, David Petraeus, be charged with a felony for his mishandling of classified information with his biographer, with whom he was having an affair.
In that case, however, the FBI had evidence that Petraeus knew the information was highly classified. Petraeus eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour charge of mishandling classified information.
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has hammered Clinton on the issue, saying the investigation should disqualify her from being president, and he is unlikely to let up.
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.
Trump called the decision “very unfair” and said Mrs Clinton’s use of private email compromised national security.
On Tuesday, he said the FBI’s decision was unfair. “The system is rigged,” he said on Twitter. “As usual, bad judgment.”
Comey’s announcement came hours before Clinton’s first campaign appearance with President Barack Obama, in North Carolina. It also came less than three weeks before the Democratic National Convention at which Clinton is to be nominated as the party’s candidate for the Nov. 8 election.
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.
She had previously said she did not knowingly send any classified material from her account.
But investigators found that a number of messages that were marked classified at the time were sent from her account.
The FBI ended its investigation after agents interviewed Mrs Clinton for more than three hours over the weekend about her email habits.
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