Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton met privately on Monday in Phoenix, Arizona, after the two realized they were on the same tarmac, an aide to Clinton said.
The meeting took place at an Arizona airport ahead of the public release Tuesday morning of the House Benghazi committee’s report on the September 11, 2012, attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya.
Speaking at a news conference in Phoenix on Tuesday, Lynch confirmed the meeting and denied the two spoke about any matter pending before the Justice Department or the Benghazi probe. She also said the former president “did not raise anything” about an ongoing case or anything of that nature.
“I did see President Clinton at the Phoenix airport as he was leaving and spoke to myself and my husband on the plane,” Lynch said according to CNN affiliate KNXV/ABC15. “Our conversation was a great deal about grandchildren, it was primarily social about our travels and he mentioned golf he played in Phoenix.”
The private moment in Arizona drew particular attention because Lynch’s Justice Department has an ongoing investigation into the email practices of Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, when she was secretary of state. It also came before Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, who appointed Lynch to attorney general, publicly announced on Wednesday they would campaign together, marking the President’s first official foray onto the 2016 campaign trail.
The former president’s aide said nothing beyond Lynch’s characterization of the account was discussed, and that Clinton “always” extends this courtesy when he is around cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and other dignitaries, pointing to the former president’s unplanned meeting with Sen. Ted Cruz at an Alabama airport in May.
Asked in Los Angeles on Wednesday whether the meeting risked the department’s impartiality in its investigation, Lynch said the email probe is “being handled by career investigators and career agents who always follow the facts and the law.”
The email investigation has continued to simmer in the background of the 2016 election contest, becoming a particular focus of a recently concluded Republican investigation in Congress and a nonstop target of her presumed general election opponent Donald Trump.
The steady flow of details and ongoing speculation around the email investigation have helped to fuel Clinton’s perceived trustworthiness issues among voters, a problem the former secretary of state herself recently acknowledged.
Sen. Chris Coons said Thursday though he believes Lynch will remain objective in her role, he would have advised against the meeting, which he says sends the wrong signal even if it was “a brief, casual, social meeting with the former president.”
“I think she should have said, ‘Look, I recognize you have a long record of leadership on fighting crime but this is not the time for us to have that conversation. After the election is over, I’d welcome your advice,’ ” the Delaware Democrat told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day.”
Rep. Peter King, R-New York, also said Thursday that he thought the meeting between the pair should not have taken place, despite his respect for Lynch’s work as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“Obviously he (Bill Clinton) shouldn’t have done it. I’ve had a lot of respect for Loretta Lynch when she was here in New York. I’ve been somewhat disappointed of some of the things she’s done as attorney general,” he told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.
