Bill Clinton, Loretta Lynch meet privately before release of final Benghazi report
Former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch met privately at an airport in Phoenix on Monday, even as the Department of Justice continues its formal probe into the email practices Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state.
The meeting took place aboard a private plane parked at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport, just hours before congressional Republicans released the final report detailing their lengthy investigation into the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.
That investigation uncovered the existence of the private email server Hillary Clinton, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, used while at the State Department, and sparked the ongoing federal investigation by the FBI.
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Both Lynch and aides for Bill Clinton described the meeting as mostly social, denying that the half-hour conversation at any point strayed to the legal questions that have hung over Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
"I did see President Clinton at the Phoenix airport as I was leaving, and he spoke to myself and my husband on the plane," Lynch told reporters, according to ABC15. "Our conversation was a great deal about his grandchildren. It was primarily social and about our travels. He mentioned the golf he played in Phoenix, and he mentioned travels he'd had in West Virginia."
"There was no discussion of any matter pending for the department or any matter pending for any other body," Lynch continued. "There was no discussion of Benghazi, no discussion of the State Department emails, by way of example."
When asked if the meeting could throw into doubt her objectivity in handling the email investigation, or would affect the decision on whether to indict Hillary Clinton, Lynch said the work was being handled not by political appointees but by professional staff.
"My agency is involved in a matter looking at State Department policies and issues. It's being handled by career investigators and career agents," she said. "It will always follow the facts and the law and do the same independent and thorough investigation that they've done in all."
An aide to the former president said they "caught up after they realized they were both sitting on the same tarmac," adding that he "always" extends the courtesy of meeting with cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and other dignitaries whenever he crosses paths with them.
The aide pointed to an unplanned encounter with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas when he was still seeking the Republican presidential nomination. The two "exchanged pleasantries" when they happened to both be at Mobile Regional Airport in Alabama, in February, the same day Cruz called for Hillary Clinton to be put in jail.
But the habitual nature of Bill Clinton's meeting with Lynch Monday did little to offset the appearance of impropriety under the circumstances, highlighting his wife's greatest weaknesses as a candidate: her perceived corruptness and lack of honesty.
Voters give Clinton her lowest marks by far when asked about her trustworthiness, compared to her other characteristics.
In a Fox News poll released Thursday, just 30 percent of voters said Clinton could be described as honest and trustworthy, a figure that has steadily fallen from about split when she launched her campaign last year.
Campaigning earlier this week at the Rainbow Push Coalition, Clinton acknowledged the lack of trust as an area where she has "work to do."
"A lot of people tell pollsters they don't trust me. Now I don't like hearing that and I have thought a lot about what is behind it." she said. "It certainly is true, I have made mistakes. I don't know anyone who hasn't."
