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 Clinton was secretary of state in September 2012 when U.S.
facilities in Benghazi, Libya, were attacked, killing four Americans
including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
Democrats have said the Republican-controlled committee is more
interested in damaging Clinton's reputation than uncovering the
truth about that deadly night.
But the committee's chairman, U.S. Representative Trey Gowdy of
South Carolina, said on Sunday he is focused on finding out what
security failures led to the incident - not on Clinton.
"She is an important witness but she is one witness," Gowdy,
chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said on CBS's
"Face the Nation."
Clinton is due to testify before the committee on Thursday. The
committee questioned her senior aide, Huma Abedin, for six hours in
a closed session on Friday.
 Democrats have argued that the 17-month-old probe is a political
tool to damage Clinton as she seeks her party's nomination in the
November 2016 presidential election.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 House Republican, stoked
that view last month when he said the panel's work may be hurting
Clinton's poll numbers.
Gowdy advised fellow Republicans who are not involved in the
committee's work to stay quiet.
"I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends 'Shut up
talking about things that you don't know anything about.' And unless
you are on the committee, you have no idea what we have done, why
we've done it," he said on CBS.
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Clinton has said she considers the committee to be politically
motivated.
"I think it's pretty clear that whatever they might have thought
they were doing they ended up becoming a partisan arm of the
Republican National Committee," Clinton said in a CNN interview
broadcast on Friday.
Representative Elijah Cummings, the leading Democrat on the Benghazi
committee, told "Face the Nation" that the 18-month-old had lost its
focus: the events that led to the Benghazi deaths.
He said Gowdy has not interviewed the head of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff or the secretary of defense, but has brought in many witnesses
connected to Clinton through the State Department or her campaigns,
including aides and speechwriters.
"We still have been zeroed in on Hillary Clinton. There is
absolutely no doubt about that, and it's very unfortunate," he said.
(Reporting By Patrick Rucker; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Nick
Zieminski)
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