A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee is calling for former Attorney General Loretta Lynch to testify before them regarding her alleged interference in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
A letter from four senators, Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, Ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein, Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, is requesting information regarding Lynch’s communication with a Clinton campaign aide, Amanda Renteria in addition to documents and information that might indicate whether the FBI investigated the Lynch-Renteria communication.
That communication was reported in The Washington Post May 24; the Post alleged Lynch assured Renteria she would not permit a sustained FBI investigation into Clinton. A supposed email from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was DNC chair at the time, mentioned the communication, but the FBI is not certain it is genuine.
Also fueling the drive into investigating Lynch was former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee in which he stated that he was concerned that Lynch had instructed the FBI to refer to the Clinton investigation as a “matter,” language which the Clinton campaign preferred.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said it “would be very helpful” for Lynch to testify before the Judiciary panel. He asserted, “Frankly, a lot of what Hillary Clinton was exposed to by Director Comey’s misconduct and the way he handled that was apparently in response to his lack of confidence in the attorney general, and I think there is a lot we could learn from that.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) echoed that he wanted the Judiciary Committee to “get more involved … The accusations now that … the current and former attorney general were political — that has nothing to do with Russia as much as it has to do with how the Department of Justice is being run. I want to find out all about that.”
Feinstein allowed, “I think we need to know more about that. And there’s only way to know about it, and that’s to have the Judiciary Committee take a look at that.”
A spokesman for Grassley said no decisions have been made and staffers needed to “gather evidence.” But he admitted that it was “likely” that Lynch’s testimony “will become necessary at some point.”
A spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz said Cruz would “absolutely” support Lynch testifying.
Comey had told Intelligence Committee members that he confronted Lynch as to whether she had decided to shut down the FBI’s investigation. Comey expressed concern about her meeting with former President Bill Clinton at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. At the time, the FBI was investigating Hillary Clinton; Lynch was supposed to receive a recommendation of what action to take against Clinton, if any, from FBI director James Comey.
Lynch said at the time:
I did see President Clinton at the Phoenix airport as he was leaving and spoke to myself and my husband on the plane. … Our conversation was a great deal about grandchildren, it was primarily social about our travels and he mentioned golf he played in Phoenix. … 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.