Trump Calls Bill Clinton's Meeting With Attorney General Not 'Ethical'

They met for about 15-20 minutes.

ByABC News
June 30, 2016, 6:26 PM

— -- In an interview with ABC News’ Tom Llamas, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump criticized a meeting that took place between former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch at a Phoenix, Arizona airport on Monday.

Trump -- citing an open FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton's email at the State Department -- said that the meeting was “just something that you don’t do from an ethical standpoint. It’s something that is unheard of.”

He added, “Nobody can even think where there’s a precedent.”

The meeting between the attorney general and the former president was unplanned, according to Lynch, who spoke about the conversation at a press conference on Wednesday. “As I was landing, he was headed out,” said Lynch, referring to President Clinton. At a Tuesday press conference, Lynch said: “There was no discussion on any matter pending before the department or any matter pending with any other body. There was no discussion of Benghazi, no discussion of State Department emails.”

“When you meet for a half hour and you’re talking about your grandchildren and a little bit about golf,” Trump said on a day when he was campaigning in New Hampshire, “I don’t know it sounds like a long meeting.”

Trump continued, “I was very surprised I was surprised that frankly he would do it, and I was very surprised that she would do it,” referring to Clinton and Lynch.

“I think it was a meeting that even the Democrats are saying ‘what’s going on here,’” Trump said.

Trump pointed to an ongoing Department of Justice investigation, which could create a conflict of interest between Clinton and Lynch.

“You know who would think that when you have this massive investigation going on on emails, which is so serious, they’d have a meeting like this,” Trump told Llamas. “So I was very surprised. I was actually very disappointed to see it.”

Lynch acknowledged the meeting when asked about it by a local ABC News affiliate in Phoenix.

"I did see President Clinton at the Phoenix airport as he was leaving and spoke to myself and my husband on the plane," she said at a news conference.

Hillary Clinton has apologized for using private email. The FBI investigation is not focused on whether Clinton should have used private email, but rather if anyone bore responsibility for mishandling sensitive information.