Grimm Says Lynch Targeted Him to Become Attorney General
Former Congressman staging primary challenge to Donovan
Former New York Rep. Michael Grimm said that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch targeted him to advance her career.
Grimm said that 14 months before his indictment for tax evasion, he was told that if Lynch could “take me down on anything” that she would be “put at the top of the list” for attorney general.
At the time, Lynch was U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and in charge of the case.
“Two months after my bogus indictment for delivery boys off the books, she’s the Attorney General of the United States,” Grimm said on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York.”
Grimm said the timing wasn’t a coincidence.
“I was a rising star in the Republican Party, the only Republican federally elected in the entire city of New York,” he said. “I was rising like a rocket and they had to get rid of me.”
The former Republican congressman is now staging a primary challenge against Rep. Dan Donovan.
Grimm served seven months in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud.
Grimm said that while he was wrong to keep a dishwasher and three delivery men “off the books,” he said he deserved a civil fine.
“Why was I the first person in the entire history of New York City to be singled out,” Grimm asked on the show.
Lynch did not respond to requests for comment on Grimm’s accusations.
Grimm is running as a pro-Donald Trump Republican and has accused Donovan of obstructing the president’s agenda.
“He went way against our president,” Grimm said, citing Donovan’s opposition to repealing the 2010 health care law and vote against a bill that would strip funding from “sanctuary cities” that protect undocumented immigrants.
“Since I’m running, he’s going the complete opposite way,” Grimm said. “Now he’s voting on the right.”
Former White House strategist and head of Breitbart News Steve Bannon endorsed Grimm’s comeback bid.
Despite criticizing Donovan for being opposed to Trump, Grimm had a moderate record while he was in the House, calling himself “just right of center,” and criticized the tea party as an “extreme wing of the Republican Party.”
