Updated at 10:43 p.m.
Former FBI Director James Comey was asked by President Trump to compare Attorney General Loretta Lynch to her Obama administration predecessor Eric Holder, according to Comey’s newly leaked memos.
In his recollection, Comey claimed he said Holder was “smarter and more sophisticated and smoother” than Lynch, who he did call a good person.
The newly revealed insight into Comey’s opinion of Lynch comes as the two have traded barbs of late as Comey starts his book tour.
In his memoir, Comey said Lynch was torn by his handling of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized email server and hints that there may yet be more information.
Comey wrote Lynch possessed a “tortured half-out, half-in approach” to the inquiry and he described a September 2015 meeting with Lynch in which the then-attorney general asked him to describe the investigation into Clinton’s emails as a “matter.”
In response to Comey’s book, Lynch issued a statement effectively condemning the former FBI head for not raising his concerns with her sooner. “I have known James Comey almost 30 years,” Lynch wrote in a statement Sunday. “Throughout his time as director we spoke regularly about some of the most sensitive issues in law enforcement and national security. If he had any concerns regarding the email investigation, classified or not, he had ample opportunities to raise them with me both privately and in meetings. He never did.”
During a Thursday evening interview on MSNBC, Comey said he considers Lynch a “friend,” and despite his concerns about the optics of Lynch appearing compromised, including a 2016 tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton, he has no reason to believe she acted inappropriately.
