Two conservative groups, Judicial Watch and the American Center for Law and Justice, have been doing the hard work the mainstream media refuses to do to investigate the infamous tarmac meeting between then Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the husband of a subject of FBI Investigation, Bill Clinton.The tarmac meeting was not initially disclosed by either Lynch or Clinton. Rather, the get together was discovered by a local news crew, as we previously reported on June 29, 2016, Gross appearance of impropriety in AG Lynch private meeting with Bill Clinton:
What do you call an Attorney General who meets privately with the husband of a person under FBI investigation, and only discloses it when asked?Loretta Lynch……. Lynch met privately with Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport for 30 minutes, a meeting that was revealed only when a local news crew asked her about it at a press conference. ABC15 reports:
Amid an ongoing investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of email and hours before the public release of the Benghazi report, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch met privately with former President Bill Clinton.The private meeting took place on the west side of Sky Harbor International Airport on board a parked private plane….ABC15 asked Lynch about the meeting during her news conference at the Phoenix Police Department.“I did see President Clinton at the Phoenix airport as he was leaving and spoke to myself and my husband on the plane,” said Lynch.The private meeting comes as Lynch’s office is in charge of the ongoing investigation and potential charges involving Clinton’s email server….“Our conversation was a great deal about grandchildren, it was primarily social about our travels and he mentioned golf he played in Phoenix,” said Lynch Tuesday afternoon while speaking at the Phoenix Police Department.Sources say the private meeting at the airport lasted around 30 minutes.“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, by way of example I would say it was current news of the day, the Brexit decision and what it would mean,” she said.
That meeting set into motion a series of events including a press conference by then FBI Director James Comey announcing there would be no charges, and also a later announcement in late October 2016, that the FBI had reopened that investigation based on the discovery of additional emails on the laptop used by Anthony Weiner. Lynch leaned on Comey not to disclose the reopened investigation to Congress.
Since then we learned that Lynch told Comey not to describe the investigation into Hillary as an “investigation,” and instead to call it a “matter.”
The mainstream media has shown little interest in the story, preferring instead to obsess about Russia, Russia, Russia.
Two conservative groups, however, have used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain emails about the tarmac meeting.
Judicial Watch, which has represented Legal Insurrection in the past regarding FOIA issues, obtained documents that were heavily blacked out, Justice Department Blacks Out Talking Points on Lynch-Clinton Tarmac Meeting:
Judicial Watch today announced that the Justice Department refuses to disclose the talking points developed by the Obama Justice Department to help it respond to press inquiries about the controversial June 27, 2016, tarmac meeting between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.The Justice Department heavily redacted the documents under Exemption b (5), which allows agencies to withhold draft or deliberative process material. The blacked-out material centers around talking points drafted and used by Justice to respond to press inquiries about the Lynch-Clinton meeting….“It is jaw-dropping that the Trump administration is blacking out key information about how the Obama Justice Department tried to spin Loretta Lynch’s scandalous meeting with Bill Clinton,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “President Trump should order the full and immediate release of these materials.”
The ACLJ also has obtained emails, as we previously reported, ACLJ: DOJ Document Dump Shows Lynch-Clinton Tarmac Summit Planned, Media Coverup:
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has released 413 pages of memos obtained from the DOJ that show the “tarmac summit” was planned and that the media was working with the Obama-Lynch DOJ to downplay and bury the entire incident.The ACLJ in their article entitled, “DOJ Document Dump to ACLJ on Clinton Lynch Meeting: Comey FBI Lied, Media Collusion, Spin, and Illegality,” reports:
We have just obtained hundreds of pages in our ongoing investigation and federal lawsuit on former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton while the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI had an ongoing criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. The results are shocking.
First, the Comey FBI lied to us. Last July, we sent FOIA requests to both the Comey FBI and the Lynch DOJ asking for any documents related to the Clinton Lynch plane meeting. The FBI, under the then directorship of James Comey, replied that “No records responsive to your request were located.”
The documents we received today from the Department of Justice include several emails from the FBI to DOJ officials concerning the meeting. One with the subject line “FLAG” was correspondence between FBI officials (Richard Quinn, FBI Media/Investigative Publicity, and Michael Kortan) and DOJ officials concerning “flag[ing] a story . . . about a casual, unscheduled meeting between former president Bill Clinton and the AG.” The DOJ official instructs the FBI to “let me know if you get any questions about this” and provides “[o]ur talkers [DOJ talking points] on this”. The talking points, however are redacted.
Chuck Ross at The Daily Caller does an excellent job sorting out the emails and demonstrating how Lynch used an alias to communicate about the tarmac meeting and its fallout, Here Is The Alias Email Account Loretta Lynch Used As Attorney General:
Like her predecessor, Eric Holder, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch used an email alias to conduct government business, The Daily Caller has confirmed.Several of Lynch’s emails were included in 413 pages of DOJ documents provided to the conservative groups Judicial Watch and the American Center for Law and Justice. Both groups had filed lawsuits for records regarding Lynch’s controversial meeting with President Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport last June 27.Using the pseudonym “Elizabeth Carlisle,” Lynch corresponded with DOJ press officials to hammer out talking points in response to media requests about the meeting. The tarmac encounter drew criticism from conservatives because Lynch was overseeing the federal investigation into whether Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information on her private email system.The meeting was revealed not by Lynch, Clinton or the Justice Department, but by a reporter in Phoenix working based on a tip.On June 28, a reporter with Phoenix’s ABC News affiliate contacted the Justice Department to inquire about the meeting. Internal DOJ emails show that the request touched off a mad-dash to develop talking points and statements to respond to the developing story.Lynch, using the Elizabeth Carlisle account, which was hosted on the Justice Department’s system, was also involved in those discussions.Lynch’s attorney, Robert Raben, confirmed to TheDC on Monday that Lynch emailed under that pseudonym. He pointed to an article published in The Hill last February in which the Justice Department acknowledged that Lynch was using an email handle that was not her given name.“That address was and is known to the individuals who process [Freedom of Information Act] requests; the practice, similar to using initials or numbers in an email, helps guard against security risks and prevent inundation of mailboxes,” Raben said.
This is just another indication that there has been a coverup about the tarmac meeting. The explanations at the time never made sense, and didn’t pass the smell test for anyone who has observed how the Clintons and their cronies operate.
The Trump administration would be in its rights in getting all the information out into the public, without DOJ blacking out key passages in emails. There is no reason for the Justice Department to assist in keeping communications secret. Jeff Sessions should order the release of all information and emails.
There is a 2016 collusion scandal, but it’s not about Russia.
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