Video Appears to Show the Day Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch Met on Tarmac

Encounter between attorney general and former president sparked controversy.

ByABC News
August 18, 2016, 2:48 PM

— -- Airport surveillance video obtained by ABC News appears to show the day of the controversial tarmac encounter between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton in June.

The private meeting, described by both parties as a chance encounter, came as the Justice Department was wrapping up its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account during her tenure at the State Department.

The pair merely exchanged social pleasantries and didn’t discuss the email probe, according to both Lynch and Bill Clinton. The conversation, which lasted around 20 minutes, was “primarily social,” Lynch said.

But critics, including Donald Trump, cried foul.

The meeting is “just something that you don’t do from an ethical standpoint. It’s something that is unheard of,” the Republican presidential candidate told ABC News’ Tom Llamas.

The video was obtained from the Phoenix Aviation Department through a public records request seeking "all video of the meeting between President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport on June 27, including any surveillance footage of the plane(s) on the tarmac."

It shows a white-haired figure who appears to be the former president emerging from a black SUV and then walking toward a plane, eventually disappearing behind the aircraft.

Airport authorities said they could not confirm the identities of the people nor the plane in the video, and the Secret Service referred ABC News to Bill Clinton’s staff, who has not responded to a request for comment.

ABC News' Mike Levine, Geneva Sands and Matthew Claiborne contributed to this report.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional information from the Phoenix Aviation Department.

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