Hillary Clinton will testify before a House Committee about her handling of the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, as well as the use of a private email server during her term as Secretary of State.
Although Clinton testified before the Foreign Relations Committee in January 2013 about the deadly attacks on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Republican chair of the House select committee on Benghazi Trey Gowdy had asked Hillary to once again testify before the panel. Scrutiny of Clinton’s handling of Benghazi persists as the House committee attempts to probe deeper by requesting two separate hearings.
Gowdy’s letter to Clinton’s attorney, David Kendall, summoned Hillary to appear before the committee in June to talk about the attacks, preceded by a hearing in May to address her email practices and the correspondence that may have been lost when Clinton deleted emails from the private server she used during her term as Secretary of State.
“It is necessary to call Secretary Clinton twice because the committee needs to ensure we have a complete and responsive record and all the facts before we then substantively question her on the Benghazi terrorist attacks,” Gowdy said.
In December 2014, Clinton voluntarily submitted 30,000 emails from the private server she used during her tenure in the State Department, of which a fraction related to the Benghazi attacks.
The New York Times broke the story last month about Clinton’s use of the personal account for work-related emails and suggested that the email controversy came to light as the Benghazi panel probed the loss of American lives in the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.
Kendall responded on Clinton’s behalf in a letter to the panel rejecting Gowdy’s request for a second appearance by Clinton to testify. “Respectfully, there is no basis, logic, or precedent for such an unusual request,” he wrote. “The secretary is fully prepared to stay for the duration of the committee’s questions on the day she appears.”
Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) released a statement saying Clinton’s willingness to testify should more than satisfy the panel’s demands.
“After nearly a year, we have still found not a scrap of evidence to support claims Secretary Clinton ordered a stand-down, approved an illicit weapons program, or any of the other wild allegations that Republicans have been making about her for years,” Cummings said.
Jamal Ware, Spokesman for the committee, announced on Monday that a statement will be issued after the panel reviewed Kendall’s letter.
[Image: Getty Images/ Andrew Burton , Staff]