Following reports that U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton met privately for about 30 minutes at the Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, the government watchdog Judicial Watch is asking for an official investigation.
In a letter to the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, Judicial Watch cited nearly a dozen federal laws, regulations and executive orders pertaining to ethical conduct that were violated when Lynch met with Clinton while his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is the subject of a criminal investigation by the FBI. Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton pledged to vigorously investigate the meeting.
“Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s meeting with Bill Clinton severely undermined the already low public confidence in her agency’s criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton,” he said. “In addition to this IG investigation, Judicial Watch has already sent Freedom of Information Act requests about this scandalous meeting.”
The letter to the IG, in part, states:
President Clinton is the spouse of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former Secretary of State, who is purportedly the subject of a national security crime investigation pertaining to the mishandling of national defense information processed by Mrs. Clinton’s personal server during her tenure as secretary.
Additionally, there are press reports that a federal public corruption investigation is ongoing concerning conflicts of interest and abuse of official government office involving the financial “commitments” to the Clinton Foundation, speaking fees for President Clinton and former Secretary Clinton’s official acts. President Clinton may be a target of that investigation.
Attorney General Lynch’s meeting with President Clinton creates the appearance of a violation of law, ethical standards and good judgment. Attorney General Lynch’s decision to breach the well-defined ethical standards of the Department of Justice and the American legal profession is an outrageous abuse of the public’s trust. Her conduct and statements undermine confidence in her ability to objectively investigate and prosecute possible violations of law associated with President Clinton and Secretary Clinton. This incident undermines the public’s faith in the fair administration of justice. Simply stated, Attorney General Lynch’s June 29, 2016 meeting with former President Clinton creates the broad public impression that “the fix is in.”
Judicial Watch requests your immediate and thorough investigation of the facts, circumstances and appearances of ethical, regulatory and legal violations by Attorney General Lynch in connection with her meeting with former President William J. Clinton—and that you report your findings and recommendations to the American public.
While they tried to defend the meeting, Democrats in Washington struggled with it. And some were just as shocked as the rest of the country, even if they believed the meeting was an innocent social call.
Although he later tried to walk back his assessment, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said he agreed the meeting didn’t send the right signal to the American public. He made his initial comments during an interview Thursday with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.
“[Lynch] has generally shown excellent judgment and strong leadership of the department, and I’m convinced that she’s an independent attorney general,” he said. “But I do think that this meeting sends the wrong signal and I don’t think it sends the right signal. I think she should have steered clear, even of a brief, casual social meeting with the former president.”
Former Obama aide David Axelrod was a little less diplomatic with his assessment on Twitter:
I take @LorettaLynch & @billclinton at their word that their convo in Phoenix didn’t touch on probe. But foolish to create such optics.
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