Gowdy defends Benghazi panel after official calls it wasteful

WASHINGTON — Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, is hitting back against a top Defense Department official who criticized the committee as wasteful, inefficient and unproductive.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter sent Friday, Gowdy defended the work of the committee, which was formed in 2014 to investigate the 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Gowdy’s letter came about a week after Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Stephen Hedger sent a letter to the committee criticizing its tactics, including the panel’s “crescendo” of new requests since February to interview Pentagon service members and threats to subpoena those witnesses if the Pentagon did not comply quickly enough. Hedger said the requests came with an “unrealistic timeline.”

Gowdy shot back Friday, saying that Hedger mischaracterized the nature of the committee’s investigation and its interaction with the Defense Department and that the letter was overtly partisan.

“Given the importance of the issue and the absolute necessity that the inquiry be full and fair, it is disappointing your staff has found it necessary to challenge the Committee’s requests for interviews,” Gowdy wrote to Carter. Gowdy also took issue with what he said were factual inaccuracies in Hedger’s letter. The committee has interviewed 16 Defense Department witnesses — not the seven witnesses that Hedger’s letter cited, Gowdy wrote.

Both Hedger and Gowdy accused the other of wasting taxpayer dollars.