What the hell was Bill Clinton thinking in springing a “spontaneous” visit with Attorney General Loretta Lynch at the Phoenix airport? He’s way too smart to know that the visit wouldn’t be explosive if revealed. There is reporting out this afternoon from The Observer that Clinton delayed his departure from Phoenix so that he could meet Lynch, and that he caught Lynch by surprise. The first part of this is entirely believable; the second part is more difficult to believe, but not impossible. More difficult to believe is Clinton’s cover story that he was in Phoenix to play golf, as it was nearly 110 degrees there that day. As The Observer story makes clear, he would easily have gained advance word of Lynch’s itinerary from his own security detail, which is plugged into the security plans for other senior government officials as a matter of standard operating procedure. From there it was a simple matter of reserving a tee time to arrange a “coincidental” meeting.
Clinton may have thought the meeting could have been kept secret (it was apparently exposed by a local TV crew that just happened to be at the airport, but this sounds incomplete to me), but he’s too smart not to have known that news would likely leak out somehow. You have to surmise that it was sufficiently important for Clinton to get a few minutes with Lynch to take the risk. What could have been that important?
There are more theories than the number of Bill’s girlfriends. Maybe he was offering her the blandishment of a Supreme Court appointment in a Hillary Administration, or a nice well paying position with the Clinton Foundation. I’ve thought for a while that the FBI might recommend indicting several of Hillary’s underlings, who can be easily pardoned after the election, while making Hillary a Nixonian “un-indicted co-conspirator.” Perhaps Lynch wanted to tell this or something else directly to the Clintons, but couldn’t risk a logged phone call or even personal email. Maybe Bill was offering a deal whereby Hillary drops out for “health reasons”(which may well be genuine) if she quashes an indictment. I hear Joe Biden is out on the “campaign trail” today, whatever that means.
Another possible theory is that Bill wanted Lynch to be compromised such that she had to announce today that she’ll follow the FBI recommendation, as an indirect way of putting more pressure on FBI director Comey. Comey is reputed to be a straight shooter, but surely even he can’t be immune to the political ramifications of recommending an indictment of the First Woman Nominee. Now it’s all on him; he can’t pass the buck on to Lynch and the Justice Department.
Whatever the truth of the matter, it can’t be good. This is standard operating procedure for the Clintons.
Incidentally, apparently Lynch does not have any grandchildren. So thirty minutes to talk about Bill’s solitary two grandkids?
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