Washington: The FBI report on its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email use gives Donald Trump and other Republicans a new opportunity and more tools to chip away at the Democratic nominee’s core argument to voters: competence and experience.

While there were no startling revelations in the 58 pages of material released by the agency on Friday, the FBI summaries give heft and context to Director James Comey’s assessment that the former secretary of state had been “extremely careless” in handling sensitive government communications.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s release of the heavily redacted investigative summary and a July 2 interview with Clinton were quickly seized upon by Trump and Republicans.

“Hillary Clinton’s answers to the FBI about her private email server defy belief,” Trump said in a statement. “After reading these documents, I really don’t understand how she was able to get away from prosecution.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who’s called for Clinton to be stripped of any security clearance, said the FBI documents show Clinton’s “reckless and downright dangerous handling of classified information during her tenure as secretary of state.”

Clinton avoided the worst potential outcome of the investigation when the FBI closed the probe in July and recommended she not be prosecuted. But she was left with a lingering wound. As Clinton spent much of the past two weeks courting donors rather than voters, a steady drip of stories about her e-mails and the Clinton Foundation — and concurrent attacks by Trump — took a toll on her campaign for the White House.

Clinton’s lead in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls has narrowed to 4 percentage points from 6 in that period, and her popularity has slumped as well. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted August 24-28, 59 per cent of registered voters viewed her unfavourably, a 7-point increase from early August. That about matches Trump’s 60 per cent unfavourable rating, levels that are unprecedented for major-party presidential candidates.

The FBI documents — released under pressure of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits — assure that Clinton will be grappling with the issue of her e-mails as the presidential campaign enters the final stretch into the Nov. 8 election.

Selling point

Clinton’s central selling point to voters is that her eight years in the White House as first lady, eight years as a US senator and four years as secretary of state make her one of the most experienced candidates ever to run for president. She’s labelled Trump as unqualified and unfit for the office.

In the examination of how she came to use a private email server while serving as the nation’s chief diplomat:

The FBI report also said Clinton, her aides and her lawyers lost track of at least eight mobile devices she used to send private email during her tenure, meaning the FBI couldn’t review them as part of its investigation. One person interviewed by the FBI said he recalled two instances in which Clinton’s devices were destroyed by “breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer.”

The FBI also said in its summary that Clinton denied using her private email to avoid federal open records laws. But it showed that she was warned about the system by one of her predecessors. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell “warned Clinton that if it became ‘public’ that Clinton had a BlackBerry, and she used it to ‘do business,’ her e-mails could become ‘official record[s] and subject to the law.” ‘ He told her to be “very careful” using the system.

Campaign response

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said the campaign was pleased that the FBI released its summary. “While her use of a single email account was clearly a mistake and she has taken responsibility for it, these materials make clear why the Justice Department believed there was no basis to move forward with this case,” Fallon said in an email.

The FBI released the summary Friday to provide context on its decision not to recommend prosecution of Clinton or her aides for using the private system. The Democratic presidential nominee was interviewed about her use of private email by FBI agents and federal prosecutors for 3 1/2 hours on July 2. The bureau then recommended that the Justice Department not pursue criminal charges.

— Bloomberg