Chairman questions Lynch decision not to prosecute Clinton

Attorney General Loretta Lynch repeatedly dodged and deflected specific questions Tuesday on the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email use, referring Republicans to the Federal Bureau of Investigation director instead of answering them herself – and leading to a heated exchange with top Republican Jason Chaffetz.

Lynch told the committee that she agreed to speak to President Clinton after he said he wanted to greet her.

But she pledged later that ‘the matter was handled like any other matter’.

The highly tense hearing came a day after a poll showed that a majority of Americans said they disagreed with Comey’s decision, which Lynch said she would accept even before Comey had announced it.

“I have great respect for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but we are in the midst of a gun violence epidemic here in America”, said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is repeatedly deflecting questions about the conclusion of the Justice Department’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Goodlatte mentioned that Lynch was appointed as U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of NY by then-President Bill Clinton in 1999.

At the start of the hearing, time and again, chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., grilled her about FBI Director James Comey’s findings that many of Clinton’s public statements on the key issues of her use of a private email server were contradicted by the facts the bureau uncovered.

Lynch said last Wednesday that the Justice Department would not file charges against Clinton, citing Comey’s recommendation.

Lynch previously announced she’d accept the recommendations of Comey and the legal investigators after her credibility was hurt by meeting privately with former President Bill Clinton while the investigation was pending.

Goodlatte said she should have recused herself from the email probe entirely and appointed a special prosecutor, given her prior relationship with Bill Clinton.

Ms. Lynch also defended her “social conversation” with Mr. Clinton at an airport just days before Federal Bureau of Investigation agents interviewed Mrs. Clinton.

Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot called the recommendation Lynch accepted “disheartening” and “unfortunate”.

Lynch repeatedly declined to answer Goodlatte’s questions on the specifics of Clinton’s email arrangement and classified material. She has asserted that no cases were discussed.

She refused to discuss both the facts and analysis of findings that led Comey to recommend charges not be filed against Clinton.

Lynch also faced tough questions over her decision to meet with former President Clinton last month, which she has previously admitted cast a shadow over the Justice Department’s probe.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, accused Republicans of trying to pile on Clinton ahead of their party’s convention. The attack began during protests over the police killings of Philando Castile, who was fatally shot near St. Paul, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling, who was shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after being pinned to the pavement by two white officers.