As part of a Tuesday-morning tweetstorm on the various issues bothering him at the moment, President Donald Trump accused former Attorney General Loretta Lynch of illegally trying to protect his erstwhile opponent Hillary Clinton from an investigation into her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
A.G. Lynch made law enforcement decisions for political purposes…gave Hillary Clinton a free pass and protection. Totally illegal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2017
During his testimony before the Senate last week, former FBI Director James Comey suggested he’d been concerned about the way Lynch handled the email server probe.
He said that Lynch’s tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton influenced his decision to speak publicly about his findings in the probe last summer. Comey also said that Lynch pushed him to call the investigation a “matter,” rather than an “investigation.”
“At one point, the attorney general had directed me not to call it an investigation but instead to call it a matter, which confused me and concerned me,” Comey said. “That was one of the bricks in the load that led me to conclude I have to step away from the department if we’re to close this case credibly.”
An unnamed person close to Lynch pushed back against Comey’s characterization of the former attorney general’s comments. This person told the New York Times that Comey sought out Lynch’s guidance on how to talk about the probe, and that Lynch encouraged him not to acknowledge an ongoing investigation.
