NEWSMAX
Trey Gowdy: State Dept. Blocking Clinton Benghazi Testimony
The chairman of the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in
Benghazi, Libya, said Thursday that he can't set a date for Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to testify before his panel
because the State Department has been slow in producing needed documents.
In a letter Thursday to Secretary of State John Kerry, Rep. Trey
Gowdy, R-S.C., complained that the department has delayed providing
emails and other documents involving Clinton, a former secretary of
state.
"Simply put, the committee must have the records of communication
requested more than six months ago before the secretary's appearance can
be scheduled," Gowdy wrote.
The State Department pushed back, saying the department has provided
300 emails from Clinton, 19 witnesses and more than 4,000 pages of
documents from the initial State Department investigation.
The Benghazi committee "doesn't know how to take 'yes' for an answer," said State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach.
Gowdy had initially called for Clinton to testify next week on the
attacks that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to
Libya, but he told Kerry that no longer appears possible.
Democrats have complained that Gowdy and other Republicans are
drawing out the Benghazi hearings in order to disrupt Clinton's
presidential campaign, but Gowdy said the State Department is to blame
for any delays. The committee must have a complete record before
lawmakers can effectively question Clinton, Gowdy said.
"The only thing standing between the committee and the former
secretary being able to discuss her tenure as secretary of state as it
relates to Libya and Benghazi is the Department of State's failure, in
more than half a year, to produce a single, solitary email responsive to
our request and subpoena," Gowdy wrote.
Gerlach called that claim inaccurate. In addition to the 300 Clinton
emails, the committee has had at its disposal at least 40,000 pages of
documents since August, he said.
To underline the seriousness of his complaint, Gowdy told Kerry that
the committee has "shared it concerns" with lawmakers responsible for
the agency's budget "in the event reprogramming" of some department
spending is needed to ensure compliance with the committee's request.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, senior Democrat on the Benghazi
panel, said Republicans were on "a fishing expedition for anything they
can use against Secretary Clinton in her presidential campaign," adding
that "every time they come back empty-handed, they extend their trip at
taxpayer expense."
Cummings said the Benghazi committee has had Clinton's emails for months.
"This new claim that the department has not produced a single
responsive document is completely baseless and appears to be yet another
excuse to drag out Secretary Clinton's testimony until closer to the
(2016) election," Cummings said.
I, along with a handful of my colleagues, have been documenting,
exposing and shaming the media’s and Obama administration’s whitewashing
and scrubbing of jihad and the religious motive behind this holy war.
