Lynch deserves ‘fresh start’ with Congress, Dem says

Attorney General Loretta Lynch deserves a “fresh start” with Congress, in spite of the bad blood between her predecessor Eric Holder and Republicans, a top Democrat says.

“Too often, your predecessor — whom I still admire very much — found himself the target of personal insults, in this committee and elsewhere,” Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said Tuesday during Lynch’s first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.

“I like to think that all of us in this room regret the frequent attacks on his character — or at least realize that those attacks were almost entirely unproductive,” he continued.

“We have a chance to start over today,” Conyers said. “We can do better.”

{mosads}Eric Holder, the former attorney general, endured a hostile relationship with Republicans, who accused him of leading a highly partisan Justice Department.

Republicans also criticized Holder’s handling of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) “fast and furious” investigation, which ended with federal agents giving weapons to Mexican drug lords.

During Tuesday’s hearing, House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) raised questions about the DOJ’s continuing impartiality.

He expressed concerns about the DOJ’s lax handling of the investigations of the IRS targeting scandal and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.

“Americans have become more and more suspicious that their government agencies are biased,” Goodlatte said.