Report: Lynch Did Not Prohibit Comey From Writing Letter To Congress

A new report suggests U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch did not order FBI Director James Comey to withhold from Congress the discovery of emails potentially related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Following Lynch’s objections last week, Comey reportedly asked whether he was being explicitly directed not to send the letter to congress updating them on the case.

Lynch did not answer. However, she reportedly made it clear she believed sending the letter would violate department policy.

Lynch’s office informed the FBI on Thursday that sending the letter was in opposition to a memo containing official guidance that is sent to all Justice Department employees during presidential election years.

The memo tells employees to “never select the timing of investigative steps… for the purpose of affecting any election.”

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This follows reports over the weekend that Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates disagreed with FBI Director James Comey’s decision to notify Congress about the new developments in the Clinton email case.

Reportedly, Lynch and Yates felt they did not have standing to give Comey any stand down orders on the matter due to Lynch’s controversial meeting over the summer with former President Bill Clinton while the original investigation was still ongoing.

Comey’s decision was widely debated, prompting the FBI director to send out a letter to FBI employees explaining his actions.

“We don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed,” he wrote.

“I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.”

Despite the tension between the FBI and the Justice Department, the two departments are working closely on the case.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik told several members of Congress in letters on Monday that the Justice Department was dedicating “all necessary resources” to work with the FBI on its examination of the newly discovered emails “as expeditiously as possible.”

However, an official familiar with the FBI review said investigators could not predict how long the examination would take.

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