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 The announcement came six days after Representative Kevin McCarthy
of California, the leader of U.S. House Republicans, went on
television to boast that the federally funded investigation had
successfully dented Clinton's poll numbers as she runs for the
Democratic presidential nomination.
McCarthy, who is seeking to become the next House speaker, later
clarified that he had not meant to suggest that harming the
Democratic front-runner's chances at winning the November 2016
election was the committee's purpose.
This has not stopped Democrats, including Clinton herself, from
seizing on his comments as confirmation of what they have believed
all along.
"Despite claims that the Committee would be run with integrity,
Republicans have engaged in a series of selective leaks of
inaccurate and incomplete information in an effort to attack
Secretary Clinton," the committee's Democrats wrote in their letter
on Monday to Trey Gowdy, the committee's Republican chairman.
To combat this, the Democrats said they would start releasing
transcripts from the committee's closed-door interviews with
witnesses "to correct the record," beginning with that of Cheryl
Mills.
Mills was Clinton's chief of staff at the State Department at the
time of the attack on Sept. 11, 2012, by militants on the U.S.
diplomatic compound in Benghazi. J. Christopher Stevens, then the
U.S. ambassador to Libya, was among four Americans killed.
The committee's Republicans expressed dismay at the Democrats' plan.
The transcripts should not be released to avoid tainting future
witnesses' memories, among other reasons, according to committee
spokesman Jamal Ware.
In deciding otherwise, "Democrats have shown their nakedly political
motivation, willingness to violate the letter and spirit of House
Rules, and their desire to defend Secretary Clinton without regard
for the integrity of the investigation," Ware's statement said.
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Spokesmen for Clinton did not respond to requests for comment,
although Clinton has been adamant that her testimony, due to be
given to the committee on Oct. 22, be in a public hearing. Mills
also sought to have the transcript of her August interview released.
The committee Democrats, led by Elijah Cumming, released excerpts
from Mills' testimony that they said rebutted Republican allegations
that Clinton was unengaged the night of the attack and that her
staff had undue influence over a later State Department inquiry.
"(Clinton) was pretty emphatic about wanting whatever to be done and
whatever were assets that could be deployed, if that was both
effective and possible to be done," Mills told the committee.
Clinton did not hide her anger at the committee in an interview with
NBC News on Monday.
"This committee was set up, as they have admitted, for the purpose
of making a partisan political issue out of the deaths of four
Americans," she said, jabbing at the air with a pointed finger. "I
would never have done that."
The Democrats said they would give their Republican colleagues five
days to notify them whether any portion of Mills' transcript "be
withheld from the American people," after which they would release
it.
(Writing by Jonathan Allen; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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