Dennis Ross calls for Loretta Lynch’s resignation

Polk County Republican Congressman Dennis Ross is calling for the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. 

It comes a day after Lynch’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, where she repeatedly declined to explain the legal basis for the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for sending classified information on a private, unsecured email system.

“Attorney General Lynch has broken the sacred trust of the American people,” Ross said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “Not only is she an attorney for the U.S. government, she is the highest-ranking legal official in the U.S., and, therefore, is held to the highest possible ethical standards we have in our country. Unfortunately, she has failed to practice by those standards. “

Ross contends Lynch violated “numerous regulations,” as well as the Department of Justice’s Standards of Conduct, when she secretly met with former President Bill Clinton on an airplane in Phoenix while Mrs. Clinton was still the subject of the ongoing DOJ criminal investigation into private emails while she served as secretary of state.

Lynch has apologized for the incident, and insisted that the 30-minute impromptu meeting consisted mostly of small talk, such as discussing their respective grandchildren and former Attorney General Janet Reno, a mutual friend. Ross says that meeting calls for disqualification.

Ross also charges that Lynch “decided to completely abdicate” her official role to FBI Director James Comey when she stated she would follow the FBI’s recommendation regarding possibly charging Hillary Clinton for her gross negligence and dangerous mishandling of secret government information while serving as secretary of state.

“For Attorney General Lynch to blindly follow such a serious recommendation and prevent her department from providing its own recommendation completely negates our entire legal system, not to mention gives the impression of preferential treatment on behalf of the DOJ,” Ross maintains. “As an attorney and officer of the court who swore to uphold justice myself, I am utterly dumbfounded by her questionable actions and failure to perform her duties. This practice of protecting the political elite at the expense of trust and justice must be stopped.”

Ross is not the first member of Congress calling on Lynch to step down. After news of her secret meeting with Bill Clinton first surfaced, South Carolina Republican Jeff Duncan also called for her resignation.