Bernie Sanders: I hope very, very, very much that Donald Trump does not jail Hillary Clinton

The man who said the American public had heard enough of Ms Clinton’s ‘damn emails’ has expressed fear over the next president’s priorities

The Vermont senator said Ms Clinton being jailed would be 'beyond comprehension' (Jonathan Alcorn/Getty)

Will Donald Trump try to prosecute Hillary Clinton over the alleged misuse of her personal email server?

Bernie Sanders said he hoped not.

"It would be almost beyond comprehension to think that a new president would be involved in the prosecution of his opponent who ended up getting some two million more votes than he did," he said, as reported by The Washington Post.

Ms Clinton won the popular vote on 8 November but her opponent swept up in the electoral college, clinching the election as a result.

Mr Sanders, who said during a presidential debate about the public being tired of hearing about "[her] damn emails", added at the press conference that a trial against Ms Clinton: "[…] would completely divide this country. It would be an outrage. I would hope very, very, very much that Mr. Trump understands that is not something he should do."

The Vermont senator, who quit the race in July, said that Ms Clinton had a "special role to play" in the Democratic party in the future and that her voice "needed to be heard".

Mr Sanders has also been critical of his former rival, saying she lost the election as she was more focused on raising money from wealthy donors than fighting for the working people.

Mr Trump vowed during a presidential debate in October that he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Ms Clinton and her emails, and said she should be in prison.

FBI director James Comey said in July that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against the Democrat, and the investigation was closed.

Mr Comey encouraged doubt, however, when he announced via a letter to a select group of Republicans in October that he had discovered more emails that were "pertinent" to the former investigation. He closed down that second line of investigation just one week later, days before Americans headed to the ballots.

During his first interview after the election with CBS’ 60 Minutes, Mr Trump neither confirmed nor denied whether he would pursue with his legal threats.

"I will give you a very, very good and definitive answer the next time we do ‘60 Minutes’ together," he told journalist Lesley Stahl.

Mr Trump is currently scrambling to make 4,000 government appointments, including within his cabinet, his national intelligence and security teams and a supreme court justice.

He also threatened to sue the women who accused him of sexual assault once the election was over, and the publications such as NBC that printed the claims, which he strongly denied.