Hillary Clinton has agreed to testify during the week of May 18 before the Republican-led House Select Committee on Benghazi, where she is expected to take questions on both the 2012 Benghazi consulate attack and her use of a private email account during her tenure as Secretary of State. Politico quotes her attorney David Kendall on the planned appearance:
“Secretary Clinton has been and remains ready and willing to testify in public…..about the tragic events of September 2012,” Kendall wrote. “At that time, she will, of course, address any other questions the committee believes to be pertinent to its charge, including the questions posed…about her email.”
South Carolina representative Trey Gowdy leads the committee in question, whose inquiry into the 2012 Benghazi deaths of Libya ambassador Christopher Stevens and another foreign service officer has been cautious to the point of alienating the right-wing writers and activists who have insisted since the days after the attack that it was a consequence of grave executive-branch negligence and malfeasance. More moderate news outlets (like Slate), meanwhile, have treated the issue of Clinton’s seeming circumvention of transparency rules via private email as a potentially serious transgression (and a realer threat than Benghazi to her 2016 presidential run). Her upcoming appearance thus seems likely to be watched closely by observers from all over the political spectrum.
