U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will accept the recommendations of career employees of the Justice Department, which is looking into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, officials said Friday.

FBI officials are expected to conclude their investigation soon. Legal experts have said they do not expect any criminal charges to filed against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Speaking to several U.S. media outlets, Justice Department officials said Lynch will announce Friday she will accept whatever decision is made by the FBI’s career investigators handling the case.

Lynch has the option of modifying any possible charges against Clinton. Such disputes between the Justice Department and the FBI are not uncommon.

But such a move would have been controversial, especially given a controversy over an impromptu meeting earlier this week between Lynch and former president Bill Clinton, the presidential candidate’s husband.

Lynch has said the 30-minute meeting on the tarmac at a Phoenix airport involved “primarily social” conversation about Clinton’s grandchildren and recent travels. She says the two did not discuss the email case.

But many Republican lawmakers say the meeting may have compromised the investigation, which they had already complained was not being handled impartially. Some Democrats have also said it was improper.

Donald Trump, Clinton’s likely opponent in the presidential election, said he was “flabbergasted” at what he called a “sneak” meeting. “I’ve never seen anything like it before,” he said on Thursday.

White House officials on Thursday were cautious in discussing the matter. Spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama expects no “political interference” in the Justice Department’s investigation, but he also praised Lynch for answering questions about the meeting.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has not commented.

Clinton has consistently denied breaking any rules when she used a single email system, based inside her New York home, for private and official business while she was secretary of state. She has said she would do things differently now.

The FBI has been probing whether using a personal email account put national security in peril. The Justice Department has been looking into whether classified information was mishandled.

Officials are supposed to use government email accounts both because of national security concerns and federal record keeping requirements, though several high-level officials have chosen to use personal systems in recent years. [Read More]

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Source: VOA News: Economy and Finance