Newly Declassified DOJ Watchdog Report Shows FBI Cut Corners in Clinton Email Investigation
I'm archiving "Clinton annex" here to make its text searchable. You can download the annex in PDF format via the link below:
Check my other posts for the previous parts. This is part 8.
D. (U) August 10 Meeting with AG Lynch
(redacted) According to LHM, McCabe and Anderson met with Lynch and a member of her staff on August 10, 2016. The LHM states that McCabe and Anderson showed Lynch the (redacted) reports and briefed her on the matter, but does not include further details about the meeting.
(redacted) McCabe described the meeting with Lynch as a defensive briefing, and said that a member of Lynch's staff who handled national security issues attended the meeting with her. McCabe told the OIG that he showed the two (redacted) reports to Lynch and explained that the information came from T1, and that Lynch did not respond to the information in the reports, He stated:
(redacted) And she read them and I will probably never forget, she just finished reading them and said, okay.... I mean like I expected more of a reaction than that. Like I expected like, this is crazy, I never talked to that person. But she was absolutely stone faced and said nothing about the content of the memos - which I don’t know how to interpret that.
(redacted) McCabe said that he had interacted frequently with Lynch in morning briefings and found her to be engaging, polite, and "well-spoken," and that he thought that her lack of a reaction to the substance of the reports was "odd."
(redacted) Anderson said that McCabe walked Lynch through the two (redacted) reports and the FBI's assessment of their credibility, and that Lynch had several questions about the reports. Anderson recalled one question in particular about Russian (redacted) stating that Lynch was careful in her response to McCabe not to suggest any investigative steps that the FBI should or should not take. Regarding Lynch's reaction to the substance of the reports, Anderson said the following:
(redacted) [AG Lynch] made a reference to Amanda Renteria.... [S]he kind of stumbled over the name and...pronounced it differently than we had all been pronouncing it internally and I think she did say...I don't even know who she is or...something to that effect to make it clear to us that...from her perspective, the idea of contact between the two of them was not [credible], But...it was not like...a direct refutation by the Attorney General, it was sort of like, I don’t even know who this person...is[.]
(redacted) Anderson said that on the walk back to the FBI, she and McCabe discussed the "circumspect nature" of Lynch's reaction to the information, and the fact that Lynch did not comment on its veracity. Anderson acknowledged that the meeting was not accusatory or akin to an FBI Interview, and that they did not ask Lynch directly about her opinion of the reports, but that it was "a little bit weird" that she did not affirmatively offer a disavowal of them. Anderson described Lynch as quiet and calm in reacting to the information.
(redacted) Lynch had a different recollection of the meeting than McCabe and Anderson. She said she recalled that McCabe told her that the FBI had information she needed to be aware of, but that they had looked at it and determined that it had no investigative value. She said that McCabe told her that the FBI did not plan to take investigative steps with respect to the information, nor were they recommending that she take any investigative steps. She said that she understood that the FBI had consulted with Margolis about what to do before deciding to talk to her.
(redacted) According to Lynch, McCabe explained to her that they did not have the underlying communications that the (redacted) reports were purported to be based on, and they discounted the credibility of the information for various reasons, including that they were unable to verify any of the essential facts in the reports. She said that it was her impression that the information was "in some way false or fraudulent." Lynch described the discussion with McCabe as follows:
(redacted) And I said, however, just so you know, I do not know anyone named Amanda Renteria.... I said do you know if Ms. Renteria knows anyone on my staff or anyone who used to work for either me or anyone...in the AG's office. And he said...we have not taken steps toward that end and we’re not recommending that you do.
(redacted) I said all right, I will not. And I said, but just to be clear, I don't know the woman involved, Ms. Renteria. I've never had conversations with her like that or anyone to that effect. And I said if you choose to do so, if you'd like to interview anyone on my staff up to and including me, you're free to do so.
(redacted) He said thank you very much, we appreciate that, but we're not going to be taking any investigative steps at this time.
(redacted) I said all right, and I said by you recommending that I don't, I take it you don't want me to interview my staff. And he said, that's right. I was just clarifying. He did not...imply that I should or anything like that. I said all right.
(redacted) And he again said that this was not a matter that was going to cause them to do anything else, but they had in fact had it for several months. And he said that will be the extent of the briefing and then he and Ms. Anderson left.
(redacted) She said that she did not have any further discussions about the reports after the briefing from McCabe.
(redacted) After reviewing copies of the two (redacted) reports during her interview, Lynch stated that she had never seen them before and that they were more substantive than the information that McCabe presented to her. She said that McCabe presented a truncated version of the second (redacted) report relating to her alleged conversations with Renteria and Wasserman Schultz. Lynch said that there was no truth to the underlying allegations in the two reports: she was never in communication with anyone related to the Clinton campaign about the Midyear Investigation, and she did not mount a pressure campaign on Comey to ensure that the investigation did not go too far.
(redacted) Lynch said she would have liked to have known about the (redacted) reports in the Spring of 2016. She said that this was when Comey commented that he should be the one to make any declination announcement and she was receiving letters from Congress about appointing a special counsel. She said that she did not think she would have changed her mind had she been told about the reports at that time, but that she would have liked to have known that there were "false allegations floating out there." to allow her to decide how to handle them.
(redacted) The member of Lynch's staff who attended the meeting described the conversation with McCabe as very brief. Regarding the substance of the discussion, she stated:
(redacted) I remember the Attorney General saying I don’t know who this person [Renteria] is. I’ve never had any contact with them.... [W]e were all like what is this? This makes no sense at all.... I just remember her saying...I haven't had any conversations with you know, Wasserman Schultz or you know, this lady, you know I think she said that. But she really didn't say much. I think it was more she was just outrightly dismissive of [the information]..... [B]oth of us were a bit incredulous, like what is this? This is very odd[.]
(redacted) The staff member said that Lynch is "kind of a formal person," and that Lynch's demeanor during the meeting reflected that she was "not impressed" with the information.