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Hillary Clinton ‘eager for FBI interview' over private email use

Secret Service personnel at the home of Hillary Clinton in Washington. Picture by Cliff Owen, Associated Press
Secret Service personnel at the home of Hillary Clinton in Washington. Picture by Cliff Owen, Associated Press Secret Service personnel at the home of Hillary Clinton in Washington. Picture by Cliff Owen, Associated Press

DEMOCRATIC White House hopeful Hillary Clinton has said she has been eager to be interviewed by the FBI about her use of a private email server while she was US secretary of state.

Mrs Clinton used a private email server for her government and personal emails rather than the State Department's email system during her tenure. The FBI has been investigating whether sensitive information was mishandled.

The agency interviewed her for more than three hours on Saturday and Mrs Clinton told NBC's Meet The Press that she was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department bringing its review to a conclusion.

She described the tone of the FBI session as civil and businesslike.

Mrs Clinton said she had no knowledge of any timeline for the review and would not comment on whether she was given an indication that charges would not be filed.

For Mrs Clinton, the interview indicates that the US Justice Department's year-long probe is drawing to a close only four weeks before she is to be formally nominated as the Democrats' choice to succeed President Barack Obama.

In a tweet posted on Saturday, Mrs Clinton's Republican rival Donald Trump said "it is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. What she did was wrong!"

But Mr Trump also created his own stir on social media by posting online an image of Mrs Clinton with what appeared to be a Star of David and a background of dollar bills.

He took Mrs Clinton's old Twitter avatar celebrating her status as the first presumptive female presidential nominee and added a background of dollar bills along with the words "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" written over a six-point star.

The image quickly drew scrutiny online, raising accusations of anti-Semitism. Mr Trump deleted the tweet later in the day and replaced it with a version that uses a circle in place of the star.

Meanwhile, former president Bill Clinton has reflected on his controversial meeting with US attorney general Loretta Lynch, concluding that, like her, he would not do it again.

Mr Clinton met Ms Lynch on an airport tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona, on Monday when their travel schedules coincided. Ms Lynch later said their discussion did not include the Justice Department investigation of Mrs Clinton's email server.

She also said she understood why a controversy erupted over her talking to Mr Clinton and would not do it again.

On Saturday, an aide to Mr Clinton said his conversation with Ms Lynch was unplanned and entirely social in nature, but Mr Clinton now recognised how others could take another view and agreed with Ms Lynch that he would not repeat it.