U.S. attorney general to accept FBI findings in Clinton email probe
WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will accept the recommendations of career prosecutors and investigators on whether or not to bring charges against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over her email use, a Justice Department official said on Friday.
Lynch will discuss her decision later on Friday at an event in Aspen, Colorado, where she is scheduled to speak at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), the official said.
"The Attorney General expects to receive and accept the determinations and findings of the Department's career prosecutors and investigators, as well as the FBI director," the official said, speaking on background.
More about the email scandal:
"Determinations as to whether to charge any individual, as well as the findings of the investigation, will be made by career prosecutors and investigators who have been handling this matter since its inception."
The move, first reported by the New York Times, comes amid an uproar over Lynch's meeting this week with former U.S. President Bill Clinton while his wife, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the White House, is under federal investigation.
The private meeting took place on Lynch's plane after she landed in Phoenix on Monday night and Bill Clinton was leaving the airport after a rally he held for his wife earlier that day.
Lynch, appointed by Democratic U.S. President Barack Obama, told reporters earlier this week that she did not discuss the email investigation or other pending matters before the Justice Department with Bill Clinton, calling their meeting aboard her plane "primarily social."
Social media reactions to the scandal:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing Clinton's email use and whether laws were broken as a result of a personal server kept in her New York home while she was secretary of state, an issue that has come to overshadowed her campaign.
Clinton's likely rival in the presidential race, Republican Donald Trump, on Thursday called Lynch's meeting "a sneak" and questioned the judgment of both Bill Clinton and the attorney general.
The Justice Department, along with the White House, has said the probe should be free of political interference.
(Reporting by Julia Edwards and Adam DeRose; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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