U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch insisted Wednesday that she had not discussed the Justice Department’s investigation into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time in office with anyone at the White House and had no plans to do so.

Lynch’s comments — which came during an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee — were aimed at assuring legislators and the public that the investigation is insulated from political pressure. Lynch mostly deflected specific questions about the case, though she said she would do the same in all ongoing investigations “whether they involve someone with a famous last name or not.”

“We treat them the same, and that is how the public has confidence in the investigations that we conduct,” Lynch said.

Under questioning from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Lynch said she did not know why a White House spokesman was speaking in a way that suggested that he had inside knowledge of the probe and where it would lead. She seemed to offer a soft jab at the spokesman for talking about the case.

“Certainly, it’s my hope, when it comes to ongoing investigations, that we all would stay silent,” she said.

The spokesman, Josh Earnest, said at a press briefing last month: “What I know that some officials over there have said is that she is not a target of the investigation. So that does not seem to be the direction that it’s trending, but I’m certainly not going to weigh in on a decision or in that process in any way. That is a decision to be made solely by independent prosecutors. But, again, based on what we know from the Department of Justice, it does not seem to be headed in that direction.”

Lynch declined to provide details about an immunity agreement for a former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server, though she said the department was preparing a written response to Sen. Charles Grassley’s, R-Iowa, request for a copy of the agreement. The staffer had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify before a congressional panel in September, and Grassley said he wondered why the agreement would not allow him to do so without fear of prosecution now.

“If it covers him for Justice Department matters, why wouldn’t it cover him so he could testify before Congress?” Grassley said.

At one point, under questioning from Sen. John Cornyn III, R-Texas, Lynch refused to even concede specifically that a decision to charge someone in the case would rest with her or someone working for her.

“Everybody in the Department of Justice works for me, including the FBI, sir,” she said.

Asked if the Justice Department was analyzing Clinton or the Clinton Foundation’s “foreign sources of income” for possible ethical or legal violations, Lynch said she was unfamiliar with such a probe, at least by those under her command.

“I’m not aware of any other issues along the lines of what you have outlined,” she said. The Washington Post has reported that investigators with the State Department, which is separate from the FBI, issued a subpoena to the foundation last fall seeking documents about the charity’s projects that may have required approval from the federal government during Clinton’s term as secretary of state.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Matt Zapotosky