Even if the FBI recommends prosecution, the final decision on whether or not to bring the Hillary Clinton email scandal case to a grand jury will be made by Attorney General Loretta Lynch. However, there is a growing movement for Lynch to step aside because of a conflict of interests— she works for Barack Obama, and is close friends with Senator [score]Charles Schumer[/score].
Monday morning The Hill reported:
Even if no evidence of wrongdoing is found, Clinton’s many critics are unlikely to take the word of an appointee of President Obama’s, and will doubt that justice has been served.
Already, top Republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to be brought in and evaluate the situation.
No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn (Texas) took to the floor of the Senate last week to call for a special counsel to be appointed “because of the conflict of interest by asking Attorney General Lynch to investigate and perhaps even prosecute somebody in the Obama administration.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) agrees that Lynch ought to consider a special counsel, a spokesperson said, to reassure the country that decisions are made “without regard to any political considerations.”
So far the Justice department is resisting the call. And the Hill says she has no contacts with Ms. Clinton—well with the possible exception of:
Lynch was appointed to be the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1999 by President Bill Clinton, Hillary’s husband.
However, she was personally recommended for the position by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and one government official said Clinton himself had a relatively minor role in the selection process.
(…) But unlike some U.S. attorneys — such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or Preet Bharara, the current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — Lynch never appeared to glad-hand with politicians, former colleagues say.
Does it really matter? Well yes. Even if Loretta Lynch plays it straight, if Hillary Clinton doesn’t get indicted it’s going to smell. Let’s face it, her biggest supporter is N.Y. Senator and future senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. Schumer also happens to be one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest supporters.
Not only did Chuck Schumer recommend her for the U.S. Attorney job but he was her champion for the Attorney General position. Part of his speech introducing Lynch to the senate for her AG confirmation demonstrated their closeness:
I originally recommended Loretta Lynch for the position of US Attorney in the Eastern District in 1999 because I thought she was excellent; sure enough, she was. When President Bush took office, Ms. Lynch went to the private sector to earn some money. But when I had the opportunity to recommend a candidate to President Obama, I was certain that I wanted Ms. Lynch to serve again. So I called her on a Friday afternoon – I was confident that with the weekend to think it over, she would be drawn to answer the call to public service. And sure enough, her commitment to public service was so strong, that she called me back on Monday to say yes. She passed unanimously out of the Senate twice already; wouldn’t it be nice if she passed unanimously a third time? Based on her record, she should.
As for Hillary, Schumer endorsed her before she even announced.
Election Day 2016 is still more than three years away, and Clinton isn’t expected to make a final decision on whether to run for president until next year. But that didn’t stop Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, from using a rare visit to Iowa to do some early campaigning on behalf of his former Senate colleague from New York. “I am urging Hillary Clinton to run for president, and when she does, she will have my full and unwavering support,” he said Saturday evening during a keynote address to an Iowa Democratic Party fundraiser in Des Moines.
Now this is not to say that Senator Schumer is putting pressure on his good friend Loretta Lynch to overlook any possible crimes committed by his good freind Hillary Clinton. However, whether true or not, if Hillary is not charged it will certainly look that way.
A 1/28 Rasmussen poll reported 64% of likely U.S. voters think it’s likely Clinton broke the law by sending and receiving e-mails containing classified information through a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of State. A February 3 Rasmussen poll found that 81% of likely U.S. voters describe the federal government today as corrupt.
Putting it all together we have a situation where even if it’s a legitimate decision, if Ms. Lynch doesn’t return an Hillary indictment it’s going to look like there’s something funny going on, especially because of her close relationship with Hillary supporter Senator Chuck Schumer. We also know that right or wrong, almost two thirds of Americans think Hillary is guilty, and eight out of ten believe the government is already corrupt.
The Hillary case is ripe for a special prosecutor, one not beholden to Chuck Schumer or anyone else in the Democratic Party to satisfy a population that already mistrusts the federal government.
