Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton had met aboard a private plane on an airport tarmac in Phoenix days ago. | AP Photo Aide: Bill Clinton regrets meeting with Loretta Lynch

Bill Clinton regrets his "tarmac summit" with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, it was reported Saturday.

An aide to the former president gave a statement on condition of anonymity to both CNN and The Associated Press, describing the meeting as “entirely social in nature.”


“The president’s conversation with the attorney general was unplanned and was entirely social in nature. But recognizing how others could take another view of it, he agrees with the attorney general that he would not do it again,” the aide said.

Lynch on Friday said that she regretted the meeting, acknowledging that it has cast a “shadow” over the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state.

Lynch and Bill Clinton had met aboard a private plane on a tarmac in Phoenix days ago.

“It’s important to make it clear that that meeting with President Clinton does not have a bearing on how this matter will be reviewed and resolved,” Lynch said.

Hillary Clinton on Saturday said the meeting was "short" and that the two "did not discuss the Department of Justice's review."

“And I know that some, nonetheless have viewed the meeting in a different light, and both the attorney general and my husband have said they would not do it again, and the bottom line, for me, is I respect the professionalism and integrity of the officials at the Department of Justice handling this process," Clinton told MSNBC's Chuck Todd.