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Report: Trey Gowdy Met Secretly With WH to Get Key Benghazi Testimony
Tuesday, May 17, 2016 06:36 PM
By: Todd Beamon
Top Obama administration advisers Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes were only able to testify before the special House Benghazi committee after chairman Trey Gowdy met secretly with White House officials.
Originally, the administration refused to have Rice, who was national security adviser when the 2012 attacks occurred, and Rhodes, her deputy, testify before the panel, Fox News reports.
Gowdy, the South Carolina Republican, met with the White House Counsel's Office in January in Charlotte, N.C., Fox reports.
Both Rice and Rhodes eventually ended up testifying before the panel this spring. The Benghazi attacks killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens and two former Navy SEALs.
"I will just say as a general matter that the White House and the administration has, despite what Republicans acknowledge is the pure political motivation of that committee, has sought to cooperate with them, only because they're a co-equal branch of government," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told Fox when asked about the meeting.
He said that the administration has "cooperated with them repeatedly and provided them access to senior administration officials and access to thousands of pages of documents and emails and other materials."
Former CIA Director David Petraeus will testify for a second time before the Benghazi committee on Saturday, according to Fox.
He first appeared in a closed session in January.
