Clinton email probe winding down

WASHINGTON -- FBI agents probing whether Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server imperiled government secrets appear close to completing their work, a process experts say likely will culminate in a sit-down with the former secretary of state.

The FBI already has spoken with Huma Abedin, a Clinton confidant who was among the Democratic presidential front runner's closest aides at the State Department. Former chief of staff Cheryl D. Mills also is cooperating with the investigation, according to her lawyer.

That signals agents probably will seek to interview Clinton in the near future, if they haven't already, former Justice Department officials said. The FBI's standard practice is to save questioning the person at the center of an investigation for last, once they have gathered available facts from others.

"With a person like Secretary Clinton, the FBI probably assumes they are going to get one chance to interview her, not only because she is a prominent person but because she is very busy right now with the presidential campaign," said David Deitch, a former Justice Department prosecutor who handled national security cases. "It makes sense they would defer interviewing her until late in their investigation."

Appearing on CBS's Face the Nation on May 8, Clinton said the FBI had not yet reached out to her, but she was "more than ready to talk to anybody, anytime."

A campaign spokesman did not respond to calls this week seeking comment about whether anything has changed since Clinton last spoke on the topic.

Clinton has acknowledged on the campaign trail her homebrew email setup was a mistake, but said she never sent or received any documents that were marked classified at the time.