White House spokesman Josh Earnest struggled to defend multiple questions on the private meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton during Thursday's press briefing.
"The bottom line is simply that the president and the attorney general understand how important it is for the Department of Justice to conduct investigations that are free of political interference," Earnest said. "And that has been a bedrock principle of our criminal justice system in this country since our founding. The rule of law if paramount and every American citizen should be held accountable to that rule of law regardless of their political affiliation, regardless of who supports them politically, regardless of what their poll numbers say. And that is a principle the president believes is one worth protecting."
Earnest said that it was appropriate for journalists to ask Lynch about the meeting but added that the public should trust that Lynch has over 20 years of being a federal prosecutor.
Reuters' Jeff Mason pushed Earnest and asked if the White House was concerned about the appearance of political influence int the meeting. Earnest repeated that Lynch and the president were compassionate about protecting the principle of the rule of law and that he was not at the meeting to know what had happened.
CNN's Michelle Kosinski and Fox News' Kevin Corke continued to question Earnest on the optics of the meeting but Earnest refused to change his statement. Earnest also told reporters to ask Lynch themselves if they wanted more details of the meeting.
CNN reported that the former president and Lynch had a meeting on Lynch's private plane after Clinton recognized her plane on the tarmac. Lynch has maintained that the meeting was nothing but social and that two discussed their grandkids and a recent round of golf that Clinton had played.
Clinton's wife, Hillary Clinton, is under federal investigation for her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.