Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch insisted in an interview released Monday that James Comey, who served as FBI director under her leadership, never questioned her credibility even after her controversial meeting with former President Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac in 2015 and her later refusal to say the Justice Department had launched an “investigation” into Hillary Clinton.
“James Comey was testifying before Congress. I think it was June of last year. And he noted that you had asked him to call the Clinton probe a ‘matter,’ not an, ‘investigation.’ But he said it made him feel, I’m paraphrasing, it made him feel strange. He noted it. What did you mean when you said, ‘Let’s call it a matter and not an investigation?’ ” NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt asked Lynch.
“This was a very sensitive investigation as everyone knew. And the issue when he and I sat down at that time, which I think was early in the fall of 2015, was whether or not we were ready as a department to confirm an investigation going on, when we typically do not confirm or deny investigations into anything with rare exceptions,” Lynch responded.
Lynch said despite the fact that it bothered Comey that she would not call the probe an “investigation,” which some speculated was to avoid associating Clinton with a negative issue as she ran for president in 2016, Comey never expressed doubt that she was being impartial.
“It was a meeting like any other that we — that we had had where we talked about the issues. And we had a full and open discussion about it,” Lynch said about her talk with Comey. “And concerns were not raised.”
During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Comey had said Lynch’s decision to meet with Clinton’s husband was “extremely careless.”
Lynch’s interview will air Monday evening, just one week ahead of Comey’s book release for “A Higher Loyalty” on April 17.
