Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks, is pushing ahead with plans to make Hillary Rodham Clinton testify further about the attacks and her use of a private email account as secretary of state.
In a letter to Mrs. Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, Mr. Gowdy has requested that she appear before the committee during the week of May 18 to discuss her email practices. If the committee is satisfied that she has turned over sufficient documentation about her time in office, Mr. Gowdy wants her to testify again about the attacks by June 18.
Mr. Kendall said on Wednesday that she had answered questions about her email practices sufficiently in her public remarks and saw no need for a private interview with Mr. Gowdy. The Republican congressman from South Carolina responded on Thursday that the idea was only intended to protect Mrs. Clinton’s privacy and that the offer of a transcribed interview still stands.
Mr. Gowdy also enclosed 136 sample questions about the situation that he would like her to address, making his point that her public comments on the matter were insufficient.
“Suffice it to say our members have more questions,” Mr. Gowdy wrote.
Democrats on the committee have dismissed the investigation as a quest for evidence to back up their conspiracy theories about the Benghazi attacks. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign is fearful that Mr. Gowdy is dragging out the investigation to hamper her presidential bid.
Mrs. Clinton’s team has said she would be happy to testify again but John Podesta, her campaign chairman, said Republicans were dragging things out to “exploit this tragedy in an effort to try and hurt her campaign.”
