US President-elect Donald Trump will not pursue a further investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, to help her “heal”, his spokeswoman has said.
A Trump spokeswoman said he would back down from his pledge to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the former Secretary of State, reports BBC.
Mr. Trump had threatened to “jail” Mrs. Clinton, and at his rallies, his supporters often chanted “Lock her up!”
The FBI cleared Mrs. Clinton but criticized her private server. Senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told MSNBC that “when the president-elect… tells you before he’s even inaugurated he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message – tone and content”.
“And I think Hillary Clinton still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans don’t find her to be honest or trustworthy, but if Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps that’s a good thing,” she added.
Hillary Clinton with Donald Trump on October 20 at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner to benefit Catholic charities in New York
The right-wing Breitbart News Network, which aligned itself with the New York billionaire early in the election, swiftly decried the climb-down as a “broken promise”.
Democrats also attacked Mr. Trump for even having suggested in the first place that he could pursue charges against Mrs. Clinton.
“That’s not how this works,” US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted. “In our democracy, the President doesn’t decide who gets prosecuted and who doesn’t.”
During the second presidential debate in October, Mr. Trump pledged that if elected, he would appoint a special prosecutor to look into Mrs. Clinton’s private email use, suggesting she would be the prison.
His threat raised questions about whether President Trump might flex his political muscles over the Justice Department.
If Mr. Trump had followed through on the pledge, it would have been the first time in recent history that a president ordered his attorney general to prosecute a political rival.
FBI DJames Comey shook up the presidential race when he announced a new inquiry into Mrs. Clinton’s private email server 11 days before the election, only to drop the matter two days before Americans voted.
The development revived an investigation that had been declared over in July when Mr. Comey said Mrs. Clinton’s handling of sensitive classified material was “extremely careless” but did not warrant criminal charges.
In a call to donors following her shock election defeat, Mrs. Clinton blamed her loss on the FBI director’s last-minute intervention.
