Midday Roundup: State Department coughs up more Benghazi docs

Document dump. The U.S. State Department will hand over 5,000 documents related to the 2012 terrorist attack in Libya to the House Select Committee on Benghazi today. In exchange, Secretary of State John Kerry’s chief of staff, Jon Finer, will get a reprieve on his Wednesday date to testify before the committee. The document dump is the “second largest production the committee has received and the largest since last summer,” according to committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. But it isn’t expected to contain any emails from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Although the committee has some of Clinton’s emails, Gowdy has repeatedly requested more communication about how much the State Department knew of the potential danger to its staff leading up to the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. A spokesman for Clinton’s presidential campaign said over the weekend Clinton was prepared to appear before the committee, but no details have been finalized, according to a committee spokesman.

In absentia. A Libyan court has sentenced former leader Muammar Qaddafi’s son to death for his role in killings that took place during the 2011 uprising that ousted his father. But Seif al-Islam likely won’t face the executioner any time soon. He’s being held in northwestern Libya by a militia that refuses to turn him over to the government. Four years after militias tracked down Qaddafi and killed him, the country he ruled for 42 years remains in turmoil. The Islamist regime running Tripoli only controls a small swatch of the country. Warring militias continue to fight over the rest of the North African territory. That instability led Human Rights Watch to say al-Islam’s trial, a mass proceeding including 30 other defendants, was “seriously undermined” by due process problems.

Opt-out. George Washington University will no longer require SAT and ACT scores as part of its application process. School officials announced today they would drop the standardized test requirement starting Aug. 1. Admissions officers will instead rely on applicants’high school GPA, coursework, community involvement, writing skills, and personal qualities to determine their eligibility. Dean of Admissions Karen Stroud Felton said school officials made the change over concerns that some students whose test scores did not match their high school performance chose not to apply to the university: “We want outstanding students from all over the world and from all different backgrounds—regardless of their standardized scores—to recognize GW as a place where they can thrive.”

Podium pass. The city of Boston has abandoned its bid to host the 2024 Olympics, leaving Los Angeles as the frontrunner for the U.S. Olympic Committee’s choice. The International Olympic Committee will not announce a winner until 2017. Los Angeles hosted Olympic gamesin 1932 and 1984, giving it experience with the rash of issues that come with the international event. But at least one analyst believes that could work against the city. “[Previous LA games] were both hugely successful Olympics, but that also leaves us as being a city that has hosted the Olympics, and the IOC often likes to look for new venues to host the Olympics to broaden the audience, to broaden the impact,” said Daniel Durbin, a professor at the University of Southern California Institute of Sports, Media, and Society.

Trojan text. A virus masquerading as a text message is taking advantage of a vulnerability in Google’s Android mobile operating system to hijack users’phones. The Stagefright vulnerability, first discovered in April, has left 950 million users of Android 2.2 and later versions of the OS open to attack. Hackers don’t even need to persuade users to click on the text message. They can activate the virus remotely, leaving users completely unaware their phones have been hijacked. Google is working on a fix and says no users have actually been affected by the vulnerability.