WASHINGTON - Attorney General Loretta Lynch will accept the recommendation of career prosecutors and the FBI director about whether to seek charges in the investigation involving Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as secretary of State, a Justice Department official said Friday.
The decision comes after Lynch came under fire for having a private meeting Monday evening with Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, in her government jet on the tarmac of Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport.
Despite assurances that they only discussed personal matters - "our conversation was a great deal about his grandchildren," Lynch told reporters - the attorney general found herself being criticized for creating the appearance of impropriety. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called the meeting "so terrible."
"Determinations as to whether to charge any individual, as well as the findings of the investigation, will be made by career prosecutors and investigators who have been handling this matter since its inception," the official said, adding that "these determinations and findings will also be reviewed by senior career lawyers in the department, as well as by the FBI director.
Lynch, a career prosecutor who served twice as the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y., before taking the reigns of the Justice Department in April 2015, has suddenly found herself in the center of the political storm surrounding Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as the nation's top diplomat.
FBI agents and prosecutors are trying to understand whether Clinton or her aides knowingly or negligently discussed classified government secrets over a non-secure email system.
Lynch and other top Justice Department officials would normally make the final determination on whether anyone might be charged in the matter. However, the case has become politically charged, and Justice Department officials have been considering for months whether to have the agency's top political appointees recuse themselves from considering the case.
The encounter on Monday between Bill Clinton and the attorney general forced their hand.
The former president, who was departing the airport on a private jet, noticed Lynch's plane had arrived and decided to go over and say hello, said a person familiar with the meeting. He then boarded and spoke with Lynch and her husband, Stephen Hargrove, who had joined the attorney general on the trip.
Lynch said Tuesday that the meeting was personal and did not delve into the email investigation.
"Our conversation was a great deal about his grandchildren," Lynch told reporters in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon. "It was primarily social and about our travels. He mentioned the golf he played in Phoenix, and he mentioned travels he'd had in West Virginia. We talked about former attorney general Janet Reno, for example, whom we both know, but there was no discussion of any matter pending for the department or any matter pending for any other body."
The next day, the attorney general told reporters that she did not believe the meeting was a conflict of interest.
"My agency is involved in a matter looking at State Department policies and issues," Lynch said. "It's being handled by career investigators and career agents, who always follow facts and the law, and do the same thorough and independent examination in this matter that they've done in all. So that's how that'll be handled."
Despite her assurances, Lynch was blasted over the meeting by Republicans, who said it raised questions about her fairness in overseeing the probe. Democrats expressed frustration that the former president would put the attorney general in such a position.
Trump said on radio's "The Mike Gallagher Show" that the meeting was "so terrible" and "one of the big stories of this week, of this month, of this year."
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tweeted: "Lynch & Clinton: Conflict of interest? An attorney, cannot represent two parties in a dispute and must avoid even the appearance of conflict."