Hillary Clinton called by Benghazi committee to testify in May

The House Select Committee on Benghazi is asking former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham to testify in two upcoming public hearings, one to be held during the week of May 18 on her use of a private email system while serving as the nation’s top diplomat, and another to be held by June 18 specifically on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Libya.

“With her cooperation and that of the State Department and administration, Secretary Clinton could be done with the Benghazi Committee before the Fourth of July,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican and the committee’s chairman, said in a statement. “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.”

Mr. Gowdy outlined the proposed time frame, in which Mrs. Clinton would detail her email use in a hearing the week of May 18 and come for a separate hearing “no later than June 18, 2015,” in a letter dated April 23 to Mrs. Clinton’s lawyer, David E. Kendall.

The second hearing would be scheduled if the first one “results in assurances the public record is indeed complete,” Mr. Gowdy wrote.

The move comes one day after Mr. Kendall wrote a letter to Mr. Gowdy saying that there was no reason to first have Mrs. Clinton in for a private interview, as Mr. Gowdy had requested, and reiterating that she was willing to testify publicly.

Mr. Gowdy, though, still left open the possibility of a transcribed interview, citing apparent concerns on the part of Mrs. Clinton about “broadcasting specific technical details about past and current practices” in a public format.

Mr. Gowdy said the committee is open to a transcribed interview that would held either in D.C. or at another location convenient for Mrs. Clinton.

“If Secretary Clinton’s previously cited concerns about ’broadcasting specific technical details about past and current practices’ have been assuaged, the committee is certainly willing to receive her testimony in public,” Mr. Gowdy wrote.

Mr. Kendall also said in the April 22 letter that Mrs. Clinton had already publicly answered questions about her email use. She said last month she used a private address out of convenience, and that she handed over approximately 30,000 emails she deemed work-related to the State Department in December 2014, nearly two years after she left office.

She said she was following the proper rules and regulations at the time and her office has said no classified material was sent or received on the private address.

But Mr. Gowdy included a list of more than 130 sample questions for Mrs. Clinton in his letter to Mr. Kendall Thursday.

Mr. Kendall and Rep. Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democrat and the panel’s ranking member, had offered in November 2014 to make Mrs. Clinton available. But Mr. Gowdy pointed out that such a hearing would have come before Mrs. Clinton handed over her emails and before the news of her private email system arose.

“Simply put, thank goodness the committee did not schedule Secretary Clinton’s appearance when some asked us to, or else that hearing would have been woefully and now obviously premature,” Mr. Gowdy wrote.

He also said in the letter that the offer to interview Mrs. Clinton privately was “solely with respect to her unusual, if not unprecedented, email arrangement with herself and to satisfy the committee the public record was complete.”

But Democrats on the committee said Thursday that Mr. Gowdy was to blame for the pace of the committee and that new information he says is being obtained is consistent with conclusions from an Accountability Review Board (ARB) review.

“The Republicans’ multi-year search for evidence to back up their Benghazi conspiracy theories has turned up nothing,” Mr. Cummings said. “The Select Committee has identified no evidence — documentary, testimonial, or otherwise — to support claims that Secretary Clinton ordered a stand-down, approved an illicit weapons program, or any other wild allegation Republicans have made for years.”

A committee spokesman said Wednesday that the panel’s work could be pushed into 2016, when Mrs. Clinton’s presidential candidacy will be in full swing. Democrats and Mrs. Clinton’s campaign said the reported time frame indicates a political motive on the part of the committee.

But Mr. Gowdy has rejected those accusations, saying he’s made “no presumption of right or wrongdoing on anyone’s part” with respect to the attacks.

“We appreciate Secretary Clinton’s willingness to cooperate so the committee can move as expeditiously as possible to conclude the investigation,” Mr. Gowdy said.