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By Julian Hattem
\nTHE HILL<\/p>\n
Pressure is intensifying on Attorney General Loretta Lynch to hand off oversight of the federal investigation connected to Hillary Clinton<\/a><\/span>\u2019s private email server.<\/p>\n Calls for Lynch to step aside \u2014 which had already been simmering for months \u2014 appeared primed to boil over Thursday following the attorney general\u2019s unscheduled, private meeting with Clinton\u2019s husband, former President Bill Clinton<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n \u201cConsidering the ongoing criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton, this secret meeting between the Attorney General and Bill Clinton shows an astounding lack of judgment by Loretta Lynch,\u201d House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in a statement on Thursday calling for Lynch to recuse herself.\u201cGiven the culture of unaccountability in the Obama Administration, it is unlikely that Attorney General Lynch will heed the growing calls for her resignation,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at a minimum, Lynch should immediately recuse herself from the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton\u2019s unlawful activities, and appoint a special prosecutor to handle the case, so the American people can know the truth about this secret meeting and finally rest assured the criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton is being conducted fully and impartially, without even the appearance of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n A Department of Justice (DOJ) official told The New York Times<\/a> that Lynch will announce Friday plans to accept whatever recommendation career prosecutors and the FBI make regarding charges related to the server. The department had allegedly been moving toward that arrangement for months, but Lynch\u2019s sit-down with the former president apparently sealed the deal.<\/p>\n The 30-minute meeting on the tarmac at Phoenix\u2019s Sky Harbor International Airport aroused further suspicion about the political pressures weighing on the DOJ.<\/p>\n While Lynch said the meeting was purely social, critics are using it as evidence of bias. Fellow Democrats such as Sen. Chris Coons<\/a><\/span> (Del.) questioned Lynch\u2019s judgment, as did outside observers.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d go as far as to say [it was] a bonehead thing to do,\u201d said Matthew Orwig, a former U.S. attorney now at Jones Day in Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that it indicates that there\u2019s a lack of ethical compliance there,\u201d he added. \u201cHowever, it\u2019s fair for people to question it, and it\u2019s fair for people to want to ask for more details.\u201d<\/p>\n The federal investigation connected to Clinton, which was launched by inspector general referrals last July, is examining whether Clinton\u2019s \u201chomebrew\u201d email setup amounted to criminal mishandling of classified information. The Justice Department has remained tight-lipped about the probe, but the protracted length suggests that investigators and prosecutors are taking it seriously.<\/p>\n Lynch, who would be involved with overseeing prosecutorial decisions, has maintained that the inquiry is free of political meddling and being handled by career professionals.<\/p>\n A law enforcement official familiar with the matter told CNN<\/a> that Lynch was surprised by Clinton\u2019s decision to walk onto her plane\u00a0on Monday.<\/p>\n Lynch has insisted that the conversation between herself, her husband and Clinton stuck purely to pleasantries such as Clinton\u2019s grandchildren, golf and mutual acquaintances.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no discussion of Benghazi, no discussion of the State Department emails,\u201d Lynch said\u00a0on Tuesday\u00a0in Phoenix.<\/p>\n The former president \u2014 not Lynch \u2014 ought to bear most of the blame for the unseemly incident, said Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor who specializes in legal ethics.<\/p>\n \u201cClinton\u2019s conduct placed Lynch in a difficult position. She could hardly decline to talk to the former president, much as she would have wished to avoid it,\u201d Gillers wrote in an email to The Hill. \u201cBasically, she was cornered.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cClinton\u2019s private audience created the appearance of impropriety and feeds the suspicion of special treatment,\u201d he added. \u201cIt disserves the nation and Mrs. Clinton. The public should not have to wonder what the two discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n To Republicans, the episode reeked of impropriety and proved Lynch is unfit to oversee the Clinton email probe<\/a>, which many thought would have been resolved months ago.<\/p>\n John Cornyn<\/a><\/span> (Texas), the Senate\u2019s No. 2 Republican, has repeatedly called for Lynch to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the Clinton investigation.\u00a0On Thursday, he reiterated the demand.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Monday\u00a0meeting between Lynch and the former president \u201cdoes nothing to instill confidence in the American people that her department can fully and fairly conduct this investigation,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cAnd that’s why a special counsel is needed now more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n A decade ago, congressional Democrats demanded that then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez recuse himself from the case against GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, due to ties between Abramoff and the George W. Bush administration.<\/p>\n But even that incident isn\u2019t a fair analogy to the case involving Clinton, watchers said, given the immense stakes involving the potential next president.<\/p>\n \u201cIt never gets more politicized than this,\u201d said Orwig, who was generally ambivalent about a special prosecutor.<\/p>\n In a filing\u00a0on Thursday, Judicial Watch \u2014 the conservative legal organization involved in multiple open records lawsuits against the State Department over Clinton\u2019s email setup \u2014 filed a request asking the Justice Department\u2019s inspector general to review the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cThis incident undermines the public\u2019s faith in the fair administration of justice,\u201d the group claimed, and \u201ccreates the broad public impression that \u2018the fix is in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Trump<\/a><\/span>, Hillary Clinton\u2019s likely opponent in the general election race, described the meeting as a \u201csneak\u201d and evidence of the \u201crigged system\u201d against him.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s … one of the big stories of this week, of this month, of this year,\u201d Trump said in an interview on the Mike Gallagher radio show.<\/p>\n The White House has dismissed<\/a> allegations of political meddling.<\/p>\n But Coons, a Democratic senator from Delaware, said on CNN\u2019s \u201cNew Day\u201d that the private meeting \u201cdoesn\u2019t send the right signal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think she should have steered clear even of a brief, casual, social meeting with the former president,” he said.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, following initial news reports about the meeting, critics rallied<\/a> to a Change.org petition claiming Lynch \u201cno longer has the ability to remain neutral\u201d in the Clinton case and should hand the reins off to a special prosecutor.<\/p>\n The meeting had the appearance of an unforced error by the Justice Department, as the episode fed into a politically damaging narrative that Hillary Clinton is untrustworthy and, in the words of Trump, \u201ccrooked.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the second time just this month that the department has been forced onto its back foot.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the FBI was castigated for its decision to redact the name of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from the transcript of the 911 call made by Orlando, Fla., gunman Omar Mateen. The move, which was quickly reversed, was harshly criticized<\/a> by Republicans, who accuse the Obama administration of bowing to political correctness at the expense of national security.<\/p>\n