Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s private meeting with Bill Clinton has forced Democrats to defend her impartiality in the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton, and in some cases to adopt a different position than they held during the George W. Bush years.
“She has said nothing was discussed relating to the investigation,” Sen Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Thursday. “So, you have two choices, to say this didn’t matter, or she is lying. I think it didn’t matter.”
Some rank-and-file Democrats acknowledge that the private meeting “sends the wrong signal,” as Delaware Sen. Chris Coons put it. That is consistent with Schumer’s thinking in 2006, when he wanted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to recuse himself from a corruption probe that had potential ties to other members of the Bush administration.
Schumer wanted Gonzales to recuse himself from an investigation of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in order to avoid “the appearance of conflict” and buttress “public confidence” that political favoritism wouldn’t affect the investigation.
“We believe that public confidence can only be assured and that the appearance of conflict can only be avoided if you recuse yourself from overseeing the investigation and the prosecution of this case,” Schumer wrote in a Feb. 16, 2006, letter to Gonzales.
That letter was signed by 31 of Schumer’s colleagues, including then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
“Given the expanding scope of the investigation into the executive branch, public confidence in the process will be ensured only if you recuse yourself,” the senators wrote. “Along with the appointment of a special counsel, your recusal would assure the public that no political considerations will be a part of this investigation or subsequent prosecutions and also make certain that no conflict of interest will impede final resolution of the investigation.”
Gonzales refused to step aside, citing the impartiality of the “career prosecutors” handling the investigation. “These are folks that are not motivated by any political agenda,” he said. The scandal led to several politically charged convictions, including one former Republican congressman, a former official at the White House Office of Management and Budget, and a former senior official at the Interior Department.
Today, the Obama administration and Democrats like Schumer have dismissed the Lynch-Clinton meeting, even as Republicans said it needs to be investigated.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said that the meeting necessitates her recusal and the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate whether Clinton violated any federal laws by conducting all of her government work on a private server.
“This incident does nothing to instill confidence in the American people that her department can fully and fairly conduct this investigation, and that’s why a special counsel is needed now more than ever,” Cornyn said Thursday.
