Clinton: I didn't get Benghazi security requests

WASHINGTON—Former U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens did not have direct access to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to her Thursday testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Clinton’s appearance came 17 months after Congress established the special panel to investigate the 2012 terrorist attack in Libya that killed Stevens and three other Americans. It followed months of wrangling over Clinton’s use of private email, which she said Thursday only played a small role in the way she carried out her job.

In his opening statement, committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told Clinton her emails are only a small part of the investigation—a claim Democrats on the committee say is untrue.

“Your emails are no more important than anyone else’s emails,” Gowdy said. “It just took a little longer to get them.”

During the first round of questioning, which lasted more than three hours, Republicans focused on what Clinton knew and when she knew it, starting with the administration’s decision to go into Libya and overturn dictator Muammar Qaddafi. Clinton distanced herself from an email in which she said the United States was primarily responsible for the Libyan revolution. On Thursday she insisted the operation was an equal partnership with NATO and regional partners.

Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., produced a stack of 795 Libya-related emails to or from Clinton in 2011, but said there were less than 70 in 2012 leading up to the Sept. 11 attack. When Brooks questioned the absence of “a single email” related to an April 2012 bomb explosion at the Benghazi compound, Clinton said she did not have a computer in her office or conduct most business via email. She did not specify exactly how she learned of the 2012 bombing.

Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., displayed a chart showing hundreds of requests for more security from the small team in Benghazi, but Clinton said none of those reached her desk.

What did reach her desk were more than 150 emails from Sidney Blumenthal, a Clinton Foundation employee in Libya on personal business. Emails show Clinton forwarded some of Blumenthal’s memos—often with his name redacted—but she insisted she did not ask for them.

Gowdy read a string of her emails to Blumenthal containing messages such as: “Another keeper. Keep them coming.” “They started out unsolicited,” Clinton acknowledged, but “he was not advising me.”

Blumenthal’s emails played a major role in the first round of the all-day hearing, because Clinton said Stevens did not have her personal email address. She said his requests for security went to the appropriate officials.

Pompeo pressed Clinton on why she didn’t fire anyone over the attack, even after an Accountability Review Board report showed failures at multiple levels of the State Department. Clinton said there was no “dereliction of duty” that required firings.

The proceeding came amid partisan arguments over almost every element of the investigation, including its length, direction, scope, handling of classified information, and the existence of the committee itself. In the days leading up to the hearing, staffers from both parties released statements, fact-checks, and reports in an effort to frame the proceeding and its purpose.

Republicans added fuel to the rancor with multiple controversial statements, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who suggested the committee’s work resulted in Clinton’s lower poll numbers. Many interpreted the statement as an implication that Republicans created the panel specifically to damage Clinton.

True to form, before the first break, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the panel’s top Democrat, and Gowdy erupted into an argument over interview transcripts released to the public.

Clinton, who spoke in slow, measured tones for most of the hearing, called Republican accusations against her “very personally painful.” She guessed she has spent more time “thinking about Benghazi than all of you combined.”