It happened on June 27, 2016, on the tarmac at the Phoenix airport. Bill Clinton was there on his plane, and then-U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch was there on hers.
They met, privately, without witnesses, except possibly Lynch’s husband.
What otherwise might have been a meaningless chat between two Washington power brokers, one out of office and another on her way out, was significant because Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, a candidate for president, was under investigation by the FBI for allegedly mishandling classified information.
Then-FBI director James Comey took the unusual step only days after the meeting to publicly announce that while Clinton had been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information while secretary of state, he had decided not to refer the case to the Loretta Lynch-led Justice Department for prosecution. Comey insisted no “reasonable” prosecutor in the nation would find the case worth prosecuting.
