Former FBI director James Comey is on the record, claiming that he was told by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to classify the Hillary email investigation as a “matter” rather than an “investigation.” A newly released transcript of Loretta Lynch’s testimony contradicts that account.
Daniel Chaitin reports at the Washington Examiner:
Loretta Lynch denies telling James Comey to call Clinton email probe a ‘matter’Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch denied to congressional investigators last year that she ever instructed former FBI Director James Comey to minimize the Hillary Clinton email investigation by urging him to call it a “matter” instead of an “investigation.””I did not. I have never instructed a witness as to what to say specifically. Never have, never will,” Lynch told a joint task force of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees.The transcript of the Dec. 19 interview, released Monday evening by House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., clashes with what Comey testified under oath.He told the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017 that Lynch “directed” him to call the investigation a “matter” during a September 2015 meeting. Comey brought it up in the context of describing his decision to do a press conference in the summer of 2016 in which he recommended no criminal charges against Clinton but called her handling of classified information “extremely careless.”
Here’s a short video of Rep. Collins announcing the release of the transcripts:
It didn’t take long for people to spot the discrepancy:
When Lynch was asked about this in April of 2018, she didn’t deny it, but of course, Lester Holt didn’t press her on it. Real Clear Politics reported:
Loretta Lynch on Requesting Comey To Call Clinton Probe A ‘Matter’: “Concerns Were Not Raised”Holt grilled Lynch on the directive Comey claimed that he received, how she reacted and what really happened. According to Lynch, it was a meeting like any other and “concerns were not raised” by Comey.”Comey says you wanted to call it the ‘Clinton matter,’ he wants to call it the Clinton investigation. To the extent though that he noted it, that it bothered him, did he go to you and question your credibility with regard to the Clinton case?” Holt asked the former AG.”I can tell you though that it was a meeting like any other that we had, where we talked about the issues,” Lynch answered. We had a full and open discussion about it.””He didn’t raise any concerns about it?” Holt asked.”Concerns were not raised,” she said.
See the video below:
In June of 2017, while offering testimony on this, James Comey made it perfectly clear that Lynch told him to refer to the investigation as a “matter.” Watch:
Who is going to win this dispute over what really happened?
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