Hillary Clinton faced questions about her ties to Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidant, during a hearing before the House Select Committee on Benghazi Thursday.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., pressed Clinton on her attention to Blumenthal’s advice over the security requests of her own staff.
Pompeo brandished a chart that tracked the more than 600 requests for more security from officials in Libya.
The Kansas Republican also noted Clinton had received 150 emails from Blumenthal, and questioned Clinton on why those made it to her desk, but the many security requests did not.
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Pompeo’s chart showed the number of security agents in Libya stayed relatively constant despite the uptick in violence and requests.
Clinton defended her relationship with Blumenthal as a simple exchange of ideas with a friend.
“He sent me information that he thought would be of interest,” Clinton said.
“He had no official position in the government and he was not at all my adviser on Libya.”
Clinton denied that most of her intelligence about Libya came from Blumenthal, as Republicans have suggested. Blumenthal’s emails made up the largest proportion of Libya-related correspondence among the records Clinton turned over to the State Department from her private server.
Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., argued Republicans had inflated Blumenthal’s role in Libya policy for political reasons.
Blumenthal, a divisive figure in the Democratic Party, has been a controversial aspect of the Benghazi narrative since his behind-the-scenes activism was revealed earlier this year.
“We took advantage of very person we could with expertise to guide our decisions,” Clinton said of her agency’s intelligence-gathering.The former secretary of state said she received updates about Libya from the intelligence community and arms of the State Department, noting most of her communications about Libya took place offline.
