Democrats
blast U.S. House Benghazi probe as out to get Clinton
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[April 23, 2015]
By Mark Hosenball and Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats on Wednesday criticized
a Republican-led probe of the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in
Benghazi, Libya, as a political assault on Hillary Clinton, citing a
possible delay in its final report until 2016, while a related State
Department letter seen by Reuters stoked further controversy.
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The letter described the investigating committee's "top priority"
as collecting Clinton's emails about Benghazi, a disclosure likely
to fuel Democratic complaints that the focus reflects a desire to
undermine her campaign for president.
Front runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination,
Clinton was secretary of state in 2012 when attacks on a diplomatic
facility and nearby CIA base in Libya killed U.S. Ambassador
Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, who chairs the House Benghazi
committee, said Wednesday release of the panel's final report could
slip to 2016, which would be in the midst of Clinton's campaign for
the White House. But he rejected Democratic charges that he was
trying to undermine Clinton's bid for the Democratic presidential
nomination.
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He said he was not trying to drag out the probe. "I don't want it to
be 2016," he told Reuters, adding he could not say when the report
would be done.
Democrats said the news that the select Benghazi panel's report
could slip to 2016 confirmed their suspicions.
"With the Republicans’ obsessive focus on Hillary Clinton, and their
now stated intention to drag out this political charade until just
months before the 2016 election, the Select Committee no longer
bears any resemblance to its original purpose," said Elijah
Cummings, the Benghazi panel's senior Democrat.
The State Department letter, dated April 15, was sent by the State
Department to the House of Representatives committee conducting the
Benghazi inquiry.
Summarizing past communications between the department and the
committee, the letter recounted Dec. 19 discussions about how to
"prioritize" the committee's multiple requests for documents. The
letter said, "The committee said that its top priority was to
receive former Secretary Clinton's emails."
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The letter further said that the State Department "agreed to review
and produce those documents first." A State Department spokesman
said, "The letter speaks for itself."
Gowdy said he personally had not made Clinton's emails a top
priority. He said he could not rule out that someone on his staff
had done so in conversations with the State Department. He said he
resisted requests from State to narrow his search parameters.
"I never say what the priority is; it's all a priority," Gowdy told
Reuters on Wednesday outside the U.S. Capitol.
Republicans have accused Clinton's State Department of failing to
protect diplomatic personnel. The House select committee on Benghazi
has been examining the attack since last year. Several other
congressional probes preceded it.
The previous investigations found that the compound where Stevens
died was poorly protected, but that the CIA and U.S. military
responded properly to the attack.
A spokesman for Clinton had no immediate comment.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Kevin
Drawbaugh and Cynthia Osterman)
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