WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi plan to release a slew of interview transcripts in an effort to disprove Republican claims of “significant breakthroughs” in the investigation of the 2012 attacks.
Ranking Democrat Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland is waiting for relevant federal agencies to review transcripts from interviews with White House national security adviser Susan Rice, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, former defense secretary Leon Panetta and former CIA director David Petraeus before releasing them to the public, an aide said Thursday.
Cummings’ staff made this announcement after Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., earlier in the day touted progress the panel has made in the three months since a public hearing with Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Critics charged that the hearing failed to provide any new or relevant information about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on diplomatic and CIA compounds in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans.
Democratic aides noted that the investigation is approaching the two-year mark and has spent more than $6 million.
“The simple truth is that the facts haven’t changed, and the core findings of the many previous investigations have stood up to the repeated and wasteful scrutiny,” a spokesman for committee Democrats said.
A Republican committee aide blasted the statement.
“Their deceptive announcement today is further proof they are focused solely on playing politics, undermining the committee’s work, and helping their endorsed candidate for president,” the aide said in an emailed statement. “It’s also bizarre for Democrats to claim they will release transcripts that Chairman Gowdy has always said he plans to release with the final report.”
Gowdy earlier Thursday said the committee has conducted a total of 75 witness interviews since its creation in May 2014, including recent sit-downs with Rice and Rhodes. He promised to release a report “as soon as possible” on the findings of the investigation.
“While there are still witnesses to talk to and documents to review, these significant breakthroughs are big wins that will help the committee complete the most comprehensive investigation into what happened before, during and after the Benghazi terrorist attacks,” Gowdy said in a statement.
