Democrats: Clinton clean on Benghazi

WASHINGTON—Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi released a report today exonerating then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of responsibility for the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

The report comes as Republicans prepare to release their own final account of what happened before, during, and after attacks on the State Department’s special mission compound and, later the same night, a CIA facility. Two Americans died at each scene, and members of both parties have spent nearly four years arguing about who is at fault.

“Decades in the future, historians will look back on this investigation as a case study in how not to conduct a credible investigation,” wrote Democrats, who released their 339-page document along with transcripts of all unclassified interviews the committee conducted.

Democrats spent a chunk of the report accusing Republicans of “squandering millions of dollars” to politicize the investigation and unfairly target Clinton. The minority found Clinton was “active and engaged” on the night of the attacks and cited lengthy passages of her marathon testimony before the committee in October.

Republican committee staff quickly dismissed the Democratic report, saying it shows the minority’s “obsession” with Clinton, who was named 334 times. “Doherty” and “Woods,” the last names of two Benghazi victims, appeared 21 times combined—two less than the 23 references to Donald Trump.

“As Chairman [Trey] Gowdy has said, this is not about one person,” GOP spokesman Matt Wolking said. “This investigation is about the four brave Americans we lost in Libya: Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty. That is how the majority has conducted its thorough investigation.”

Members of both parties agree on at least one thing: Understaffed, under-protected Americans fought heroically to prevent more loss of life.

“U.S. personnel in Benghazi and Tripoli conducted themselves with extraordinary courage and heroism and at grave personal risk to defend and rescue their fellow Americans,” wrote Democrats, who said the Defense Department “could not have done anything differently” to prevent any of the four deaths.

Democrats made 12 recommendations on ways to improve security at U.S. facilities overseas and help “the integrity of future select congressional investigations.” They found no evidence the administration intentionally misled the nation about the cause of the attacks—originally blamed on a YouTube video—saying faulty early reports were to blame.

House Republicans, with support from seven Democrats, voted to create the Benghazi select committee in May 2014. House leadership had until then resisted efforts to create a special panel to investigate the terrorist attacks, even after 192 House Republicans co-sponsored a resolution to do so. Then-House Speaker John Boehner relented after Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, released declassified emails showing the White House crafted a false narrative that the attacks were “rooted in an internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.”

Democrats questioned the legitimacy of the committee and considered not participating, saying there were no unanswered questions after the State Department and several congressional committees conducted probes. Eventually House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., appointed Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.); Adam Smith (D-Wash.); Adam Schiff (D-Calif.); Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.); and Tammy Duckworth, (D-Ill.) to the panel.

The five Democrats complained majority Republicans never established rules, a timeline, or a clear scope for the investigation, which they accused of moving at a “glacial pace” to affect the 2016 election.

According to Republicans, the administration is responsible for the delays because it has repeatedly stonewalled committee requests for witnesses and documents.

Joe DiGenova, whose law firm represents two Benghazi whistleblowers who testified before Congress in 2013, said the Democrats’ report is no surprise.

“Elijah Cummings and the Democrats have never been interested in the truth,” DiGenova told me. “They’ve only been interested in protecting their candidate for president. They don’t care about four dead Americans. It’s a rather embarrassing performance.”

DiGenova expressed high hopes for the coming Republican report, calling previous Republican investigations “incompetent”—particularly the one conducted by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

“None of those other committees found out about Hillary Clinton’s private server—that will tell you something about how good their investigations were,” DiGenova said. “It wasn’t until Gowdy got hold of it that some life came into the investigation.”