Senate Judiciary Committee seeks answers from Loretta Lynch
WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee is seeking more information about former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s relationship to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to a statement posted on the website of committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
“Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham and Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse sought information about alleged political interference by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch during the FBI’s investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. The bipartisan inquiry comes as the Judiciary Committee is examining the circumstances surrounding the removal of James Comey as FBI Director,” the statement read.
A source familiar with the Lynch matter said that in most cases the committee will seek records and information before they issue subpoenas.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the entire Lynch situation “not such a big deal” during a June 9 press conference. On Thursday she said the Lynch incident does not deserve a subpoena.
“I don’t think she should be subpoenaed on the strings of the [former] president (Bill Clinton) going by and saying hello, which I think was a mistake,” Pelosi said in response to a question from TMN at a news conference regarding recent comments made in an interview by the Ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Feinstein.
Feinstein, of California, last week said Comey’s June 8 testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence deserved to be reviewed. “We need to know more about that, and there’s only one way to know about it, and that’s to have the Judiciary Committee take a look at that,” she told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Comey testified that Lynch had directed him to refer to the Clinton email case as “a matter” as opposed to an “investigation,” which was how the Clinton campaign talked about the incident.
Comey, instead, had called the Clinton case a “criminal investigation.”
Comey said Lynch’s directive gave him “a queasy feeling.”
Feinstein told CNN that the revelation of the alleged directive gave her “a queasy feeling too.”
Last June Lynch met with the 42nd president aboard a private plane on the tarmac of the Phoenix Airport. Lynch was heavily criticized for creating what appeared to be an impression of impropriety given that meeting took place just days after Comey had announced that the Bureau would not charge Hillary Clinton, who became the Democatic presidential nominee the following month.
Lynch later said that she and the former president had merely engaged in a social visit, talking about his grandchildren.
Comey testified that the revelation of the private meeting is what motivated him to tell the public that the Bureau would not pursue charges.
Lynch concurred with Comey’s recommendation that Clinton should not be charged, and that decision was believed to have been the end of the matter.
However, 11 days before the 2016 presidential election, Comey sent a letter to several Congressional committees announcing that the FBI was reopening the Clinton email investigation after having discovered more than 600,000 emails of interest in an unrelated probe.
Two days before the election, Comey announced that the second probe reaffirmed his original decision not to charge Clinton.
Clinton as of late has blamed Comey and a host of other parties for her defeat at the hands of President Donald Trump.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) at his weekly news conference on Thursday declined to comment as to whether he believed the Senate Judiciary Committee should subpoena Lynch.
“I’m not gonna comment on what they’re doing. That’s not even in our bailiwick,” the Speaker said in response to a question from TMN.
This story is republished with permission from Talk Media News
Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.
His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.