CHARLOTTE (AFP) - Mr Donald Trump on Tuesday (July 5) blasted White House rival Hillary Clinton as a liar abusing a "rigged" system, after the FBI recommended no charges be filed over her use of private e-mail while secretary of state.

"Our system is in fact rigged. It's corrupt, it's rigged, it's disgraceful," a furious Trump told a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, just hours after Mrs Clinton appeared in the state for her debut 2016 campaign event with President Barack Obama.

"She is laughing at the stupidity of our system."

Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey dropped a bombshell announcement earlier in the day, saying that while Mrs Clinton and her team were "extremely careless" in sending classified information via her personal e-mail account, the agency does not support criminal prosecution.

Mr Trump, who polls show faces an uphill battle against Mrs Clinton in November, has repeatedly stressed that she has sought to mask her involvement in illegal activity by deleting more than 30,000 e-mails she claimed were personal and not related to her job as the top US diplomat.

After the FBI announcement, Mr Trump appeared exasperated. "Everybody thought based on what was being said she was guilty," he said. "She was guilty, and it turned out that we're not going to press charges. It's really amazing."

Mr Trump also blasted Mrs Clinton for lying, after Comey confirmed that she had sent and received information that was deemed classified at the time.

"We now know that she lied to the country when she said she did not send classified information on her server," he said, adding that "the lives of the American people were put at risk by Hillary Clinton".

Mr Trump savaged Mr Obama's campaign appearance with Mrs Clinton as "a carnival act" and derided him as a president "who doesn't know what the hell he's doing."

North Carolina is one of the pivotal swing states in the race, and Mr Trump proclaimed he would win the state in November.