{"id":888,"date":"2016-07-01T10:54:28","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T16:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?p=888"},"modified":"2016-07-01T10:54:28","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T16:54:28","slug":"bill-clinton-met-privately-with-loretta-lynch-why-thats-a-big-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/07\/bill-clinton-met-privately-with-loretta-lynch-why-thats-a-big-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Clinton met privately with Loretta Lynch &#8211; why that&#8217;s a big problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/505833066\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 67.340067% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/505833066?et=3hbcOFaOScVsAplt-_bdgw&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=hJ1lzQWe8RpH1RXp2nlqe6jFJ0cqBfxAdx7oja_KAQk=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>What is the take away from the attorney general of the United States meeting privately with the husband of someone accused of an unparalleled breach in national security while the investigation is ongoing? That\u2019s not just the appearance of impropriety, that\u2019s the very definition of \u201cconflict of interest.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And that very thing happened this week between AG Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton. The two \u201cjust so happened\u201d to be at the same Phoenix airport at the same time when word got to Clinton that Lynch would be arriving. He waited for her to land and then boarded her private plane, where they held an \u201cimpromptu\u201d meeting on the tarmac for thirty minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Lynch, traveling with her husband, described the conversation to reporters, hoping to stave off any suspicions:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cOur conversation was a great deal about his grandchildren. It was primarily social and about our travels. He mentioned the golf he played in Phoenix, and he mentioned travels he\u2019d had in West Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was no discussion of any matter pending for the department or any matter pending for any other body. There was no discussion of Benghazi, no discussion of the State Department emails, by way of example.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, we\u2019re supposed to take her word for it? But let\u2019s say it\u2019s true and all they talked about was grandchildren and golf. That would matter very little as any lawyer will tell you that this type of meeting is textbook conflict of interest and could severely alter the outcome of a court case.<\/p>\n<p>One reporter for CBS News, Paul Reid, reacted strongly to the news, calling the meeting \u201cshocking, absolutely shocking:\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe most high-profile national security investigation under the attorney general is the investigation into whether or not classified information was mishandled in connection with Hillary Clinton\u2019s server. Now, President Clinton and his foundation are also tangentially involved in that investigation, so the appearance of impropriety is just stunning.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As RedState <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redstate.com\/california_yankee\/2016\/06\/30\/lynchs-surreptitious-meeting-clinton-violates-doj-ethics-regs\/?utm_content=buffer32f34&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">noted<\/a>, Lynch violated her own department\u2019s code of ethics. The DoJ\u2019s \u201cGeneral Principles of Ethical Conduct\u201d includes one rule found in the handbook that was clearly violated: Number 14:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>14. Employees shall endeavor to avoid any actions creating the appearance that they are violating the law or the ethical standards set forth in this part.\u00a0 Whether particular circumstances create an appearance that the law or these standards have been violated shall be determined from the perspective of a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts<\/p>\n<p>5 C.F.R 2635.101 (b)<\/p>\n<p>Appearance of\u00a0 Impropriety<\/p>\n<p>An employee shall endeavor to avoid any actions creating the appearance that the employee is violating the law or the ethical standards set forth in this part.<\/p>\n<p>5 CFR 2635.101(b)(14)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There is corruption at every turn with the Clintons and it seems as though high-level Democrats have no problem stooping to their level. A meeting like this should\u2019ve never happened and it says a lot about the character of the people who would so easily cast aside the trust of the American people.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch held a private meeting during his wife&#8217;s ongoing e-mail investigation. Why exactly?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2673,"featured_media":890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bill Clinton met privately with Loretta Lynch - why that&#039;s a big problem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch held a private meeting during his wife&#039;s ongoing e-mail investigation. 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