ED ROGERS IN THE WASHINGTON POST: The Lynch/Clinton tarmac tête-à-tête sends the message that rules are only for the little people.

Well, that’s because, in a fundamentally transformed America, they are.

The meeting Attorney General Loretta Lynch had with former president Bill Clinton on board her airplane in Phoenix is stunning. I wonder if at any other point during her time in office she has met privately with the spouse of another person who is the subject of a DOJ criminal investigation. There’s no way.

The denials from the attorney general and the former president that they did not discuss the criminal investigation underway against Hillary Clinton are beside the point. Just having the meeting sent a clear signal that the attorney general is cozy with the Clintons. In case career-minded FBI agents weren’t already intimidated by President Obama inserting himself into the investigation by declaring that Clinton’s private email server didn’t “jeopardize America’s national security,” the message was sent by this meeting: Any ambitious FBI agent hoping for a promotion in a potential Clinton administration can only hurt themselves by going against the wishes of the Clintons’ pal, Lynch. The tarmac tête-à-tête was probably effective. Lynch and the Clintons both knew exactly how the meeting would be received.

Gangster government, as Michael Barone calls it.