Sidney Blumenthal, the former Bill and Hillary Clinton aide whose role as an informal adviser to the secretary of state has sparked controversy in recent days, defended his interaction with the presidential candidate in a statement Thursday evening.
“From time to time, as a private citizen and friend, I provided Secretary Clinton with material on a variety of topics that I thought she might find interesting or helpful,” Blumenthal said in a statement released through his lawyer, James Cole of Sidley Austin. “The reports I sent her came from sources I considered reliable.”
The Democratic operative was hit with a subpoena Tuesday to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on his involvement with the botched State Department handling of a 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
“I have informed the House Select Committee on Benghazi that I will cooperate with its inquiry and look forward to answering the Committee’s questions,” Blumenthal said.
Although Hillary Clinton has also been called to testify, she has not yet set a date to appear. The committee seeks to uncover who was the source of flawed intelligence that suggested the raid that claimed the lives of four Americans on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks was the result of an anti-Muslim video clip.
