An infamous airport meeting between Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch last summer convinced FBI director James Comey he needed announce the results of Hillary probe.
An infamous airport tarmac meeting between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch last summer convinced FBI director James Comey that he needed to seize full control of the announcement regarding Hillary Clinton’s emails.
The meeting, which drew howls of protest from Donald Trump as well as criticism from watchdog groups and lawmakers when it was revealed, persuaded Comey that he, rather the AG or another Justice official, should reveal to the nation the results of a prolonged investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
‚A number of things had gone on – some of which I can’t talk about yet, ‚ Comey said ‚that made me worry that the department leadership could not credibly complete the investigation and decline prosecution without grievous damage to the American people’s confidence in the justice system.‘
‚And the capper was – and I’m not picking on the [former] attorney general, Loretta Lynch, who I like very much – but her meeting with President Clinton on that airplane was the capper for me, ‚ Comey said.
He was referencing the impromptu joint meeting between the two occurred on the Phoenix airport tarmac after Clinton learned through his protective detail that Lynch’s aircraft was nearby.
The meeting happened amid intense scrutiny of the FBI investigation as well as a Benghazi probe.
‚And I then said, you know what, the department cannot by itself credibly end this. The best chance we have for the justice system if I do something I never imagined before, step away from them and tell the American people look here’s what the FBI did, here’s what we found, here’s what we think, ‚ Comey said.
Comey indicated that he was convinced that he was the one who needed to update the nation on the decision not to prosecute Clinton – something he had been thinking about before he reached the ultimate conclusion.
‚That was a hard call for me to make to call the attorney general that morning and say I’m about to do a press conference and I’m not going to tell you what I’m gonna say. And I said to her, ‚I hope someday you’ll understand why I think I have to do this, “ Comey said.
Many Democrats weren’t persuaded. Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she believes Comey’s decisions, as well as Russian election interference, cost her the presidency.
At the press conference, he chided Hillary Clinton for extreme carelessness in handling her emails.
‚Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information, ‚ Comey said at the July press conference.
Comey infuriated Democrats a second time when he told Congress the investigation had essentially been reopened, then announced days before the election that it hadn’t turned up anything new.
‚But look I wasn’t loving this, I knew this would be disastrous for me personally, ‚ Comey said.
Lynch dismissed the importance of the meeting after it was revealed, saying the two discussed grandchildren and other anodyne subjects.
