http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Hillary-Clinton-Benghazi-select-committee-personal-email/2015/04/10/id/637844/ Benghazi Panel's Republicans Unfazed by Hillary's 2016 Plans
Saturday, 11 Apr 2015 06:39 AM
By Joel Himelfarb
House Republicans investigating the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi and the private email use of Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state say her expected presidential run will not affect their work, Politico reported Friday.
The committee has asked Clinton to testify before May 1 in the wake of a scandal involving her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
"Secretary Clinton's decision to seek the presidency of the United States does not and will not impact the work of the committee," said Rep. Trey Gowdy, of South Carolina, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
"The committee needs to and expects to talk with Secretary Clinton twice, as ensuring the committee has all relevant material is a condition precedent to asking specifically about Libya and Benghazi."
Panel Democrats have sought to depict the timing of the investigation as a Republican plot against Clinton, who is expected to make her White House run official on Sunday.
Rep. Linda Sanchez of California, for example, told Politico that her "sneaking suspicion was that it was going to be an excuse to go after Secretary Clinton."
Fellow California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff declared that Clinton has "been their target all along" and warned that panel Republicans have "turned the select committee into an arm of the NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee]."
Republicans on the Benghazi panel say the complaints are false and the reason Clinton is being asked to testify at this time is that the State Department took so long to produce documents.
This "could have been avoided if the State Department would have given us the documents a year ago," Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan said.
If the State Department or Clinton "would have told us months and months and months ago that she had a separate [email] account … this could have all been avoided," Jordan added.
Gowdy said Friday that the select committee is working with Clinton to schedule her first appearance before the panel.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy — a former assistant U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted the "blind sheikh" and 11 others for the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center — told Newsmax TV earlier this week that Clinton should have testified months ago.
"We should have had robust public hearings in this investigation already," McCarthy said. "I mean, it's been 10 months" since the House GOP leadership formed the select Benghazi panel chaired by Gowdy.
