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Couple of points.

First, a special prosecutor should be the last thing we should want at this time. Appointing a special prosecutor would kick this can into 2018. It would take several months for a SP to even find office space and staff. A few more months to review the evidence. You’re talking 2018.

Second, if you assume that there was more to this than ‘grandchildren’ which seems likely, it wasn’t to tell Bill Clinton that his wife was in the clear. Good new doesn’t require all this subterfuge.

This could have been a “heads up” to the Clintons that the AG expects the FBI will recommend prosecution and that the AG will approve their recommendation.

Alternatively, this could have been a direct message to the Clinton’s that Hillary needs to stop the prevarication and agree to an immediate interview.

I would watch the Clinton campaign closely for the next couple of weeks to see if they tip their hand.

I agree, if it was “good news”, i.e, Hill is off the hook, why go to all this trouble to meet FTF?

No, my theory is she met with Bill for good news/bad news. The good news .... she (the DOJ) is going to delay releasing the Clinton Foundation emails (that clearly show influence peddling all over the world) for 2+ years, and thus doing Bill, her mentor, a favor. Badda, badda, bing, happened the next day.

OTOH, the bad news is .... the case against Hill is so air-tight, so open-and-shut, that there is nothing that can be done to prevent it going forward.

Just my theory, based on nothing more than what these people have been doing. I’m likely wrong.

it wasn’t to tell Bill Clinton that his wife was in the clear. Good new doesn’t require all this subterfuge

In matters such as this I come to FR to drink the wisdom, but in this case there are two fountains and both seem appealing. One side says the fix is in, the other is more optimistic.

I don't care for optimism in politics, but your conclusion seems sound. Furthermore, Bill Clinton is Hillary's nuclear option. Extreme, can be messy, but gets the job done. I am inclined to think that if Hillary deployed Bill, she had nothing to lose and she's desperate.

What's confusing about that, though, is why Bill Clinton would approach Lynch when he has the unique stature to approach Obama, a fellow POTUS. Because this can't be up to Lynch or Comey.

But there can be no reason at all for Bill Clinton to have a half hour of chit-chat with Lynch, unless Hillary needs him to do so.

“This could have been a “heads up” to the Clintons that the AG expects the FBI will recommend prosecution and that the AG will approve their recommendation.

Alternatively, this could have been a direct message to the Clinton’s that Hillary needs to stop the prevarication and agree to an immediate interview.”

I’m having a hard time coming up with any reason for having to meet face to face though and risk having the bad press about it. Why do it that way at all? Maybe so there would be a scandal and then a delay while a neutral party is appointed to make a determination on prosecution or not? But then why not just do that to delay the proceedings without a risky public meeting?

FReegards

“First, a special prosecutor should be the last thing we should want at this time. Appointing a special prosecutor would kick this can into 2018. It would take several months for a SP to even find office space and staff. A few more months to review the evidence. You’re talking 2018”

But Trump could run ads for the next four months “Do Americans want to vote for someone whom may be impeached in 18 months?

Of course RAT Senators will go down with the ship and block it in the Senate, that it isn't relevant right now.

On balance I believe yours is the more likely scenario.

The meeting was conducted not to clear the way for Loretta Lynch to resign thus immunizing the Obama administration from the failure to indict but to deliver bad news to Clinton and to strike a deal.

I believe the FBI is under extreme pressure not just from the public but from its own foot soldiers to recommend an indictment because the violation of law is so unambiguously clear that no self-respecting law enforcement officer could believe otherwise. There have been several articles to the effect of the FBI rank-and-file will revolt if there is no indictment. If Loretta Lynch arranged this sub Rosa meeting with Clinton to tell him that an indictment could not be avoided, she might have been laying out the terms under which Hillary withdraws from the race and accepts a pardon. The meeting was necessary to get the ascent of Hillary and Bill and to work out the timing.

The timing is important because, if one accepts that Brack Obama despises the Clintons, he is in a position now to remove her from the race and substitute a candidate of his own choosing. He could be motivated not only by dislike of the Clintons but by a belief that she cannot win, given her baggage.

I am not naïve, I don't trust anything coming from any member of this administration, I just simply believe that the consensus and momentum in the rank and file FBI will be difficult to resist and, in any event, Obama is not personally inclined to resist it.