A prominent conservative publication is raising new questions into whether Rep. Trey Gowdy, a Republican, knew Hillary Clinton used private email on a private server six months before it became known to the public.
Former U.S. Attorney and Justice Department official Andrew McCarthy, who is now a contributing editor for National Review, makes the case in a new column published Saturday that Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is now part of the controversy surrounding the former secretary of state because he waited until after the news broke to issue a subpoena for documents pertaining to the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., questions a witness during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's hearing on Benghazi on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2013. House Republicans insist the Obama administration is covering up information about the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, rejecting administration assurances to the contrary and stoking a controversy with implications for the 2016 presidential race. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Gowdy, the appointed chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, has gained national media attention for his animated and often dramatic Capitol Hill exchanges. But Gowdy maintains he didn't say he knew because he didn't want the investigation to become sensationalized.
“The fact the Benghazi Committee was able to uncover this previously unknown, and before today unreported, information speaks to the need for the Benghazi committee,” Gowdy said. “The fact that the committee does not rush to trumpet every discovery we make speaks to my personal commitment to conduct a fair and impartial investigation into the Benghazi terrorist attack.”
It wasn't just Gowdy who knew about the private emails. Gowdy told Politico "the committee has worked with Clinton advisers and the department to gain access to documents relating to the Benghazi attacks.”
But McCarthy argues the people with whom Gowdy and other members of the committee spoke were none other than Clinton "loyal staffers," who he says "helped her carry out the scheme." The committee also spoke with the State Department, which McCarthy reminds Gowdy "just got done telling you have neither the relevant emails nor access to them."
"That in itself is a scandal," McCarthy writes.
Since news of Clinton's private emails broke, Republicans on Capitol Hill have pounced on the controversy as an issue of "transparency" ahead of the former secretary of state's presumed 2016 presidential bid. Even some Democrats have questioned why Clinton didn't use a State.gov email address.
Meanwhile, the White House is not saying whether it knew about the appointed top diplomat's private email.
“As I mentioned earlier, I think the existence of knowledge about Secretary Clinton’s email was her email address,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday. “She used that email address which we all now know did not end in @state.gov.” Earnest did, however, assert that the president does not believe the Federal Records Act was violated.
(H/T: National Review)
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