Democrats and Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi continue to wrestle over whether they will release a transcript of Sidney Blumenthal’s closed-door deposition.
Minority members called for a vote on the issue Wednesday in a scathing letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy that criticized the South Carolina Republican’s handling of the top former aide to Hillary Clinton.
“We believe the public record has been distorted by the selective release of Mr. Blumenthal’s emails without the full context of his deposition transcript, which provides Mr. Blumenthal’s answers to hundreds of questions posed to him about those emails,” the committee’s five Democrats said Wednesday.
The Democrats noted the publication of 179 pages of previously undisclosed emails between Blumenthal and Clinton marked the first official document release since the committee was formed.
Led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the minority members invoked a procedure that would compel the committee to hold a public meeting to debate the release of the Blumenthal transcript.
Gowdy has resisted the Democratic push to publish the records, arguing Blumenthal should not be treated differently than any other witness whose deposition was taken behind closed doors.
“It is clear that the Select Committee is already treating Mr. Blumenthal differently than any other witness,” the Democrats argued in their letter, noting Gowdy’s “unilateral” decision to have U.S. Marshals serve the former Clinton aide with a subpoena.
Republicans have repeatedly criticized Democrats on the select committee for what they perceive as an unwillingness to probe the woman who is now their party’s standard-bearer.
“Chairman Gowdy attempted to schedule a meeting so members could discuss this matter, but the Democrats chose to send out a press release instead,” Jamal Ware, spokesman for the Benghazi committee, told the Washington Examiner. “They remain uniquely focused on anything other than substantively advancing the Benghazi investigation.”
Ware highlighted the State Department’s continued efforts to stonewall the committee on records requests.
“If the Democrats put as much effort into getting the State Department to produce even one document as they have into this transcript, then perhaps we could actually get State to move faster on document production,” Ware said. “The committee has not released the transcript of any other witness and the chairman is not inclined to treat this witness differently because of his political connections.”
A minority committee aide refuted the notion that the Democrats had “refused to attend a private meeting” and noted they had instead called for a separate public meeting and a vote.
“Since the Select Committee hasn’t released any witnesses’ emails before now, this issue has simply not come up before,” the Democratic aide said. “If the chairman decides to release more emails from a different witness in the future, we would push for release of that witness’ transcript as well in order to provide context.”
The debate over Blumenthal’s records grew heated last week after committee members announced they had received dozens of emails that were not part of the records provided to them by the State Department.
Agency officials have failed to explain why the documents were not part of their response to congressional requests for Clinton’s Benghazi-related emails.
Gowdy has said the undisclosed records suggest either the State Department or Clinton herself withheld the emails upon request.
