As Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign attempted to frame the decision to relinquish control of her private email server Tuesday as an act of cooperation, House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Trey Gowdy highlighted the five months of congressional requests for the server she previously ignored.
Boehner released a video Thursday in which he ticked through a few of the dozens of instances he and Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, called on Clinton to hand over the server.
Kevin Smith, Boehner’s spokesman, touted the work of the select committee — which Boehner created in May of last year — in applying pressure to Clinton and the State Department to produce documents related to Benghazi.
“The fact that Secretary Clinton finally surrendered her email server vindicates Speaker Boehner and Chairman Gowdy’s efforts to compel her to do the right thing,” Smith told the Washington Examiner. “This development is important progress in our work to get answers about what happened in Benghazi.”
Gowdy first called on Clinton to hand over her server March 10, the same day the former secretary of state publicly addressed questions about her unusual email arrangement for the first time.
“Without access to Secretary Clinton’s personal server, there is no way for the State Department to know it has acquired all documents that should be made public,” the South Carolina Republican said in March. “That is why I see no choice but for Secretary Clinton to turn her server over to a neutral, detached third-party arbiter who can determine which documents should be public and which should remain private.”
Boehner joined Gowdy’s calls the following week.
Other members of the select committee pushed for a third-party review of the server, as well as leadership of the Republican National Committee.
But despite the congressional pressure, it was not until inspectors general for the State Department and intelligence community discovered highly classified information among her private emails that Clinton was forced to shift control of her server to the government.
Clinton’s campaign lashed out at Gowdy Wednesday in response to a spate of unflattering stories about her improper use of an unclassified email system.
“While you may hear from the Republican-led Benghazi committee about Hillary’s emails, it is important to remember that the committee was formed to focus on learning lessons from Benghazi to help prevent future tragedies at our embassies and consulates around the globe,” wrote Jennifer Palmieri, a Clinton spokesman, in an email to supporters. “Instead, the committee, led by Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, is spending nearly $6 million in taxpayer money to conduct a partisan witch-hunt designed to do political damage to Hillary in the run-up to the election.”
Clinton has repeatedly downplayed the select committee’s probe as a politically-motivated attempt to weaken her campaign, escalating her attacks on the investigation as it has uncovered additional information about her private server.
The select committee first revealed Clinton’s use of a personal server in March.
