RE: BENGHAZI COMMITTEE -- TREY GOWDY INJECTS BENGHAZI INTO THE 2016 CAMPAIGN

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06975751
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: January 17, 2025
• Document Release Date: December 11, 2024
• Case Number: F-2017-00086
• Publication Date: April 14, 2016

Approved for Release: 2024/12/09 C06975751
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Neal Hiaains;
RE: Benghazi Committee -- Trey Gowdy injects Benghazi into the zuib campaign
Thursday, April 14, 2016 12:52:11 PM
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I am just grateful to dana Milbank for publishing this in time for our meeting this afternoon.
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Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2016 12:46 PM
To:
Neal Higgins
Subject: RE: Benghazi Committee -- Trey Gowdy injects Benghazi into the 2016 campaign
The Post says there will be a declassification review so it has to happen 0
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Neal Higgins
Subject: FW: Benghazi Committee -- Trey Gowdy injects Benghazi into the 2016 campaign
t.lasslficdLioll;
FYI �
Trey Gowdy injects Benghazi into the 2016 campaign
By Dana Milbank/Washington Post
April 13
Is Trey Gowdy planning a July surprise?
The chairman of the Select Committee on Benghazi went to ground after he and
his colleagues grilled Hillary Clinton in October. They haven't had a single
hearing since then (and had only three public hearings before that one),
though
they occasionally send news releases reminding the world that their 700-day-
old
investigation continues.
But that is about to change. Gowdy, after blowing through several previous
deadlines he set, has said to expect a final report "before summer," and
Republicans say they are drafting it now. In another indication that the
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rollout is approaching, Gowdy last month stopped giving Democrats transcripts
of witness interviews. This move, ostensibly to prevent leaks, diminishes the
minority's ability respond to allegations contained in the majority report.
Depending on how long the declassification review takes, the Benghazi report
is on track to drop by mid-July, just before Congress recesses for the
conventions and at a time when Republicans will be in need of a distraction
from the Trump-Cruz standoff. If the review takes longer (they typically last
from a few weeks to a several months), it could come out in September, in the
campaign's homestretch.
Either scenario would confirm what critics of the panel have said all along
(and what Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy incautiously confirmed) � that the
panel is a political exercise designed to damage Clinton. Fox News host Greta
van Susteren, writing in the Huffington Post a year ago, argued that
"dragging
the investigation into 2016 looks political" and that releasing the report
right
before the election "looks awful" and "sends a bad message about fairness."
If the report comes out in 2016, she wrote, "it is fair to draw an adverse
inference against the Committee � an adverse inference of playing politics.
. . . Whatever the findings are in this investigation � it will forever be
plagued by allegations of unfairness, and politics if this investigation is
dragged into 2016."
Back then, Gowdy told van Susteren that "I want it done before 2016" and that
"it's not going to come out in the middle of 2016." The panel had originally
contemplated finishing work in October 2015. Gowdy later shifted that to the
end of 2015, then this spring.
He will argue that Obama administration foot-dragging slowed the
investigation; one batch of documents, delivered Friday, had been requested
17
months earlier. But it's hard to pin the delay on the White House when the
committee has continued in recent weeks to add new witnesses. The panel
waited
to request interviews with former CIA director David Petraeus and former
defense secretary Leon Panetta until after Clinton testified. Those two,
along
with national security adviser Susan Rice and deputy Ben Rhodes, are among at
least 35 interviewed since October. Though most of the committee's work has
been a retread of previous investigations, it claims it has received more
than
72,000 pages of records not seen by other congressional committees � not
exactly a picture of stonewalling.
Gowdy and his staff, apparently aware of the perception problem, have been
releasing defensive statements to the public. When the report is released,
"I'm
confident the value and fairness of our investigation will then be abundantly
clear to everyone," Gowdy said on April 8. The majority on April 6 issued a
statement taking issue with the "idea that the committee's October hearing
[with Clinton] was 'a flop' that produced 'no new information.'" Gowdy
previously promised the report findings would be "eye-opening."
One eye-opening thing has already happened: Gregory Hicks, the U.S. diplomat
in Libya who criticized the administration response, is now on detail from
the
State Department working as a legislative assistant to Rep. Devin Nunes
(R-Calif.), who previously said Hicks's "shocking testimony" confirmed a
"Benghazi whitewash" by the administration.
Another eye-opening thing: The panel never agreed on rules or a budget (some
$6.5 million has been spent). And the probe, after a respectable start,
quickly
devolved into the mix of unfounded allegations, selective leaks and partisan
sniping that characterized the preceding Benghazi investigation by Rep.
Darrel
Issa's oversight panel.
Democrats don't expect to see the majority's report before it is made public.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the panel, said in a
statement
Wednesday that he expects "an excessively long rehash of old Republican
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allegations that were disproved long ago."
Expect a lot of findings questioning Clinton's honesty (she told her family
the Benghazi attack was the work of terrorists but misled the American
public),
judgment (her policy led to the Libya attack) and humanity (she was
indifferent
to diplomats' security). These themes dovetail nicely with the general-
election
campaign Republicans plan to run against Clinton. This, like the timing of
the
Benghazi report, is a curious coincidence.
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