Former AG Lynch to meet with House, Senate Russia investigators

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch will meet privately next week with House and Senate intelligence committee investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, The Hill has confirmed.

Lynch was at the center of several election-year controversies that will likely be of interest to investigators on Capitol Hill.

Former FBI Director James Comey testified before Congress earlier this year that Lynch had sought to influence his investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s email server arrangement by instructing him to refer to it is a political “matter” rather than a “criminal investigation.”

“That gave me a queasy feeling,” Comey told a Congressional panel.

{mosads}Lynch has also been criticized for a meeting on an Arizona tarmac with former President Bill Clinton while the investigation into his wife was ongoing.

Under fire, Lynch announced she would defer to Comey’s judgment about whether Clinton should face charges for the mishandling of classified material while she was secretary of State.

That led to a dramatic press conference in which Comey announced he would not recommend charges against Clinton but detailed the ways she had been careless in her private email and server arrangement.

Lynch is the latest Obama official to meet with investigators on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are looking into whether Trump officials colluded with Russians to swing the election and whether the Obama administration took the threat of Russian meddling seriously.

Samantha Power, President Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, and Susan Rice, Obama’s former national security adviser, have both met with the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Republicans are also eager to get to the bottom of several Russia-related classified leaks to the media and have accused Obama administration officials of spying on the incoming Trump administration and unmasking names in intelligence reports.

CNN first reported the news that Lynch will meet with the House and Senate intelligence committees.