Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Friday she will accept the findings of an investigation by the FBI into whether Hillary Clinton broke the law by setting up a private email server for herself as secretary of state. The decision rules out the possibility Lynch, a political appointee, would ignore the findings of an investigation by career prosecutors. File photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI |
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WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she regretted having "cast a shadow" over the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton's email when she met privately this week with former President Bill Clinton, adding she will accept the findings of an FBI investigation and will not overrule a potential criminal prosecution if one is recommended.
The decision, which The New York Times reports will be made public Friday, eliminates the possibility that Lynch, a political appointee of President Barack Obama and the nation's highest law enforcement official, would overrule the findings of a months-long investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state.
The Justice Department has for months been investigating whether Clinton or any of her aides broke federal laws relating to handling classified government information.
Republicans have seized on the email issue to question whether Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is trustworthy.
Lynch will not, however, entirely remove herself from the case, as some Republicans have suggested she should.
Her decision comes days after Lynch awkwardly landed in the spotlight for a private meeting with former President Bill Clinton at a Phoenix airport. Clinton was leaving the city as Lynch was arriving and with both their planes on the tarmac, Clinton walked over to Lynch's plane for an impromptu 30-minute meeting.
Lynch has said the visit was social in nature and nothing about the email investigation was discussed.
"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 told the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart in a discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. "While I don't have a role in those findings, in coming up with those findings or making those recommendations as to how to go forward, I will be briefed on it and I will be accepting their recommendations."
Clinton first nominated Lynch as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1999. The two have known each other for many years, CBS News reported.
The Clinton-Lynch meeting caused several Republicans, including presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, to publicly criticize the attorney general. Trump said he was "flabbergasted" when he heard of the meeting.
"I actually thought they were joking. ... I said, 'No way, it's just no way that's going to happen,"' Trump said. "I am just -- I'm flabbergasted by it. I think it's amazing. I've never seen anything like that before."
Lynch said she regretted the encounter.
"I certainly wouldn't do it again. Because I think it has cast a shadow," Lynch said. "The most important thing for me as attorney general is the integrity of this Department of Justice. And the fact that the meeting I had is now casting a shadow over how people will view that work is something that I take seriously and deeply and painfully."
