Hillary Clinton is likely to escape criminal charges over an email misconduct scandal, although her actions were described as “extremely careless” by the FBI.

The agency’s director has said the FBI will not recommend criminal charges following its investigation into the Democrat president hopeful’s use of a private email server while US secretary of state.

James Comey made the announcement three days after FBI agents interviewed Mrs Clinton in a final step of its investigation.

The US Justice Department has been looking into whether anyone mishandled classified information that flowed through Mrs Clinton’s email server.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of Mr Comey and of career prosecutors.

The investigation found 110 emails in 52 email chains were determined to contain classified information, including 8 chains contained information that was marked as top secret at the time, Director Comey said.

He said: “None of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system.

“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

“Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before deciding whether to bring charges.

“Although we did not find clear evidence that sec Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”

Although Mr Comey’s announcement removes the threat of criminal charges, it is unlikely to eliminate concerns about Mrs Clinton’s trustworthiness.

And it almost certainly will not stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from continuing to make the server a campaign issue.