Benghazi Committee ‘Confirmed’ Forthcoming Testimony From Hillary Clinton, Will Interview White House Officials

The House Select Committee on Benghazi has “confirmed that the Committee will receive testimony from [former] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the next few months,” according to a memo provided to members Friday.

The committee, according to the memo, will also interview numerous current and former Obama administration officials, including former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta; White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, former White House press secretary Jay Carney, and former CIA Director David Petraeus.

Hillary Clinton (Image source: AFP/Jim Watson)

In a letter earlier this month, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), committee chairman, said both Republicans and Democrats expressed interest in Clinton appearing before the committee. The memo seems somewhat more definitive, although it does not provide a date certain.

“The Select Committee will call former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to testify before the Committee in the next few months,” the Friday memo said. “This request was made last fall but is contingent on the State Department complying with the Select Committee’s outstanding information requests.”

The memo says that the State Department’s response to “compliance with outstanding subpoenas” has been “unreasonably slow."

The Committee investigation is seeking answers from the Obama administration on the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the Benghazi compound, which the Obama administration first blamed on a YouTube video before admitting it was a terrorist attack.

When Clinton last spoke about Benghazi at a Senate hearing in 2013, she famously replied, “What difference, at this point, does it make?” when asked how the administration initially described the attack.

In a summary of what the committee has thus far accomplished, the memo said:

“Since being formed, the Committee has uncovered 15,000 pages of Benghazi documents never released to Congress; interviewed State Department personnel on the ground in Benghazi who have never been interviewed; put 20 senior administration officials, including key figures who have never been questioned by Congress, on notice for witness interviews and public hearings; issued a subpoena to the State Department for ARB documents that have never before been reviewed by Congress; and confirmed that the Committee will receive testimony from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the next few months.”

The first round of interviews began last week, according to the memo.

“Beginning February 10, 2015 and concluding at the end of April, the Committee will conduct interviews of dozens of individuals who will provide access to information not fully considered by any other committee of Congress,” the memo says. “This list includes survivors of the terrorist attack and others who can give indispensable firsthand accounts of what happened before, during and after the attacks; as well as individuals, employees and contractors from the CIA consistent with the House Resolution.”

Interviews with other administration officials will begin “immediately following the conclusion of the first set of witness interviews.”