Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Friday that she will accept the decision of career prosecutors on whether to bring criminal charges in the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. That's while Clinton is still waiting to be questioned by the FBI in the case. Our Washington, D.C. bureau reporter Geoff Bennett picks up the story.
Lynch says she won't step in to save Hillary Clinton if federal prosecutors decide to bring criminal charges against the presidential candidate for using a private email server as secretary of state.
"The recommendations will be reviewed by career supervisors in the Department of Justice and in the FBI and by the FBI director. And then, as is the common process, they present it to me, and I fully expect to accept their recommendations," Lynch said Friday an Aspen Institute conference in Colorado.
It's an unusual announcement coming from an attorney general in the middle of an investigation.
But Lynch was left with little choice, given the controversy over what she said was an impromptu, private meeting this week with Hillary Clinton's husband -- the former President Bill Clinton.
It's a chance encounter that has the appearance of a conflict of interest.
On Monday at the Phoenix airport, the former president spotted Lynch's government plane on the tarmac and climbed aboard, catching Lynch by surprise.
She says the two chatted for about a half-hour, making small-talk about Clinton's golf game and grandkids.
"It really was a social meeting, and it really was in that regard," Lynch said. "He spoke to me, he spoke to my husband for some time on the plane, and then we moved on."
Lynch says nothing came up about any ongoing investigations.
But Hillary Clinton's likely rival in the presidential race, Republican Donald Trump, says the situation reeks of impropriety.
"It was shocking to me, but it was shocking, I think, to everybody who saw it take place," the GOP's presumptive nominee told NH1 News Network. "I was so surprised to see that.”
Democrats say, at the very least, it's an unforced error, but they're defending Lynch nonetheless:
"She's an honorable person. We know that," said New York Sen. Charles Schumer. "She has a reputation of being honorable — our Republican colleagues have said it."
The attorney general said the meeting with the former president "cast a shadow'' over the ongoing investigation.
"It's important to make clear that that meeting with President Clinton does not have a bearing on how this matter is going to be reviewed, resolved, and accepted by me," Lynch said.