Hillary Clinton, other witnesses agree to testify on Benghazi

State Department officials met last night with members of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, the first step toward cooperation with the investigation into the 2012 attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The committee held its first meeting of the year Tuesday, and chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said he intended to “ratchet up” efforts to compel the Obama administration to make 22 witnesses available for questioning. Gowdy said he planned to use his subpoena powers to force the witnesses to appear, if necessary.

But less than 24 hours later, Assistant Secretary of State Julia Frifield sent Gowdy a letter saying the State Department would make its employees available. Although the committee will need to be flexible about the order of witnesses, since some will need to be recalled from overseas, the department “can commit to dates,” she said.

The witnesses willing to testify include former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. When he asked Clinton, who is expected to announce her candidacy for president in April, whether she would be willing to appear before the committee, she readily agreed, Cummings said.

But Gowdy said he would not call Clinton to Capitol Hill until the committee had all the information it needed to prepare questions for her.

“What I am not going to do is ask my colleagues to question [Clinton] when they don’t have all of the relevant documents and emails. We don’t have the emails,” Gowdy said.

Tuesday’s hearing revealed deep division between the committee’s Republican and Democratic members, who initially seemed to be cooperating on the investigation into what happened on Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorists stormed two U.S. facilities in Libya.

Cummings accused Gowdy of excluding Democrats from the investigation, in part because he allegedly has held five private meetings with witnesses without anyone from the opposing party present.

“You may have authority under House rules to conduct secret interviews and exclude Democrats, but doing so forfeits your right to continue calling this investigation ‘bipartisan,’” Cummings told Gowdy.

Cummings, the committee’s top-ranking Democrat, also lambasted the chairman for threatening to issue subpoenas without asking the committee to vote on them first. In a written response to a letter Cummings sent and then gave to the press, Gowdy said he would use whatever authority he’d been given, but reiterated his desire for the committee members to work together.

“Bipartisanship is a two-way street,” Gowdy told Cummings. “I have known you to be a fair partner and expect for that cooperation to continue.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.