I didn't think it was possible that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch's infamous election year tarmac meeting with former president Bill Clinton could be cast in a sleazier light, yet here we are.

The Justice Department explicitly instructed the FBI in 2016 not to charge Hillary Clinton with "gross negligence" for her mishandling of classified information when she served as secretary of state, according to congressional testimony provided by a former Bureau attorney.

This raises an obvious question about Lynch's post-tarmac congressional testimony wherein she asserted repeatedly that she protected the integrity of the Clinton investigation by deferring the case to the FBI. But can she really claim to have shown deference when it was her department that quietly directed the Bureau against seeking its primary charge?

The allegation that the Justice Department directly influenced the FBI’s final recommendation in the Clinton investigation comes from testimony provided to members of Congress in 2018 by ex-FBI attorney Lisa Page, yes, that Lisa Page. House Republicans released the transcripts this week.

The record shows that Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, and Page went back and forth discussing the Bureau’s intra-agency debate on whether it could bring a “gross negligence” charge against Clinton for having operated an unauthorized homebrew email server out of her bathroom when she served in the State Department. Page explained the FBI and the DOJ determined early on that they’d most likely not be able to prove “malign intent” on Clinton's part.

Ratcliffe, who is himself a former federal prosecutor, noted Page was correct in her explanation of intent. However, he also suggested the FBI “just blew over" what many viewed as Clinton's "gross negligence,” which is also permissible as grounds for prosecution in such cases.

This is where things get interesting.

Page alleges the Bureau didn’t blow over the charge and added it had “multiple conversations” with the Justice Department about “charging gross negligence.” The DOJ advised that the charge was “too vague,” she said, and therefore felt it could not “permissibly bring the charge” or “sustain” it.

Ratcliffe then said: “[W]hen you say you got advice from the [Justice Department], you’re making it sound like it was the Department that told you: You’re not going to charge gross negligence because we’re prosecutors and we’re telling you we’re not going to [bring a case based on that].”

“That is correct,” responded Page.

The FBI ultimately recommended that no charges be brought against Clinton, though the agency’s then-director conceded she was “extremely careless.”

Now, compare Page’s closed-door interview to Lynch’s 2016 congressional testimony. The former attorney general told members of Congress, “I made the decision, some time ago, that I would accept the recommendation of that team ... When I received it, there was no basis not to accept it and again I reiterate my pride and faith in them.”

She also said, “I met with … career prosecutors and agents who conducted that investigation. I received and accepted their unanimous recommendation,” “I received the recommendation of the team and that team was composed of prosecutors and agents. With the unanimous recommendation as to how to resolve the investigation, and what the information that they had received,” and “I accepted that recommendation. I saw no reason not to accept it.”

Lynch was in the hot seat before Congress following reports that she had met secretly with Bill Clinton even as the Justice Department was actively investigating the former president's wife. Lynch, who claimed it was just an impromptu meeting between old friends, refused to recuse herself from the case. Rather, she assured the public she would accept whatever charge the FBI recommended.

The former attorney general also said during her 2016 congressional testimony, “As I've indicated, I've determined to accept that recommendation and did, in fact, accept that recommendation.”

She added, “[M]y decision was to accept the recommendation of the team of agents and investigators who worked on this. … They've applied the facts to that law and came up with a unanimous recommendation, a joint recommendation in effect that was provided to me.”

If we’re to believe Page’s testimony, what are we to make of Lynch’s? That she deferred the matter to the FBI, testifying repeatedly that she had resigned herself to accept whatever the Bureau recommended, but only after the Justice Department had already instructed the Bureau against seeking its chief charge?

Why, it’s almost as if some of these former Obama administration officials are not very honest.