The 45-year-old television news man who was the first to report of a secret meeting between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch that was held on her private jet in 2016 has died of an apparent suicide.
Police in Hoover, Alabama, said they received a 911 call at 8:13am on Saturday of a person down at a home on Scout Trace.
First responders arrived at the home and found the body of Christopher Sign, a former University of Alabama football player and veteran broadcast journalist with Birmingham’s ABC TV affiliate WBMA-LD.
News of Sign’s death, which is being investigated by police as a suicide, was reported by AL.com.
In 2016, Sign reported that former President Clinton had met with Lynch on her private jet at Phoenix Airport.
It was alleged that their conversation centered around an ongoing investigation into whether Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while Secretary of State was illegal.
Bill Clinton and Lynch would go on to portray it as an impromptu friendly chat.
Days later, the FBI chose not to bring criminal charges against Hillary, who was in the midst of her presidential campaign.
Less than two weeks before the 2016 election, however, the probe was re-opened after emails were found on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, the former congressman and husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
The FBI began investigating Weiner in 2015 after DailyMail.com revealed that he was in a ‘sexting’ relationship with a 15-year-old girl.
Then-FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress in late October announcing the re-opened investigation. Two days before the election, the investigation was closed.
Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump. Some observers believe that the timing of Comey’s letter to Congress may have cost her the presidency.
Since 2017, Sign has been an anchor on the local news station ABC 33/40 in Birmingham.
‘Our deepest sympathy is shared with Chris’s loving family and close friends,’ said Sinclair Broadcast Group Vice President and General Manager Eric S. Land.
‘We have lost a revered colleague whose indelible imprint will serve forever as a hallmark of decency, honesty and journalist integrity.
‘We can only hope to carry on Chris’s legacy. May his memory be for blessing.’
James Spann, a meteorologist and colleague of Sign, tweeted: ‘We are still in shock over this news. Chris was a very good friend, and an incredible journalist. The grief today has been overwhelming.’
Wendell D. Edwards tweeted: ‘I’m in disbeliefe. Praying for his family and the 3340 family too.’
Jamie Hale, a sports anchor for the same station where Sign worked, tweeted in response to a news story about his death from her organization’s web site: ‘I can’t believe we have an article with this title. It doesn’t feel real.’
A native of the Dallas area, Sign spent time working as a reporter for ABC 33/40 between 2000 and 2005.
Before returning to Alabama to become an anchor, he was a local ABC 15 TV Arizona reporter when he broke the stunning story of the tarmac meeting in June 2016.
‘We knew something had occurred that was a bit unusual. It was a planned meeting. It was not a coincidence.’ Sign told Fox and Friends in February 2020 ahead of the release of his book Secret on the Tarmac.
Donald Trump had tweeted at the time: ‘Does anybody really believe that Bill Clinton and the U.S.A.G. talked only about ‘grandkids’ and golf for 37 minutes in plane on tarmac?’
This is an excerpt from The Daily Mail.
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