Top Senate Dems defend Lynch-Clinton meeting

by TheHill.com - 06/30/16 10:53 AM ET

Two of the Senate’s top Democrats are defending a private meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton this week.

“She’s an honorable person. We know that,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), expected to be the next Senate Democratic leader, told reporters on Thursday. “She has said nothing was discussed related to the investigation so you have two choices: To say this didn’t matter or she’s lying. I think it didn’t matter. I don’t think she’s lying.”

{mosads}”All I can say is Loretta Lynch is one of the most outstanding human beings I’ve ever known,” Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said.

“No one could ever question her, her strong feelings about the rule of law and her ethics — I repeat — are the best,” he added.

Their comments come after Lynch and Clinton met in Arizona, hours before the House Benghazi Committee released a report on the 2012 terror attacks in Libya. Lynch told reporters that they didn’t discuss the issue.

“There was no discussion on any matter pending before the Department or any matter pending with any other body, there was no discussion of Benghazi, no discussion of State Department emails,” she told reporters.

The meeting has stirred criticism of Lynch, given the ongoing Department of Justice and FBI investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who has repeatedly called on Lynch to appoint a special counsel, questioned if Lynch had a “conflict of interest.”

Reid also defended former Hillary Clinton Thursday, noting she has been on the campaign trail in her White House bid for more than a year “in spite of the fact that the Koch brothers have spent $30 million in money trying to make something out of Benghazi.”

“She takes questions from the press. She’s not afraid to answer questions, and look … on the other side, you’ve got this Donald Trump,” he added.

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