Attorney General Loretta Lynch is too capable a prosecutor not to have fully understood the loaded message sent by her private sitdown with Bill Clinton — whose wife is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.

Never mind that the ex-president appears to have initiated the 30-minute chat at the Phoenix airport: After learning she was due there, he reportedly delayed his own departure in order to meet with her.

Not only didn’t Lynch’s own FBI security team stop him from boarding the plane, agents told onlookers to put away their cellphones and not to take any photos or videos.

Sure sounds like everyone understood from the start just how bad such a conversation would look — and why word of their Monday talk was hushed up for days until a local reporter got the scoop.

Even if Lynch is telling the truth that the conversation was “purely social” (though 30 minutes is a long time to congratulate someone on a new grandchild), it still doesn’t pass the smell test. And Republicans weren’t the only ones saying so.

David Axelrod, former top adviser to President Obama, called the meeting “foolish.” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) rightly spelled out what the attorney general should have told Clinton: “This is not the time for us to have that conversation.”

As for Clinton, he may have tried to influence the direction of the probe into Hillary’s private email server — or he may just have been trolling for information. Either way, it would be an improper use of influence.

Lynch said Friday she’ll defer to the judgment of the FBI and career prosecutors on how to resolve the case — but won’t stay entirely hands-off. We’ll see.

Bottom line: She’s guaranteed that, if no charges are filed, no one will believe it was an impartial call.