Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, blasted the State Department for its refusal, or inability, to produce copies of the 60 previously undisclosed Benghazi emails given to Congress by Sidney Blumenthal.
“This is a straightforward question — State Department either has them or they do not,” Gowdy said Tuesday. “State should immediately produce to the committee emails that should have been produced months ago or explain why it is not in possession of these emails from Secretary [Hillary] Clinton.”
The South Carolina Republican began raising questions last week when the existence of additional Benghazi-related emails indicated either the State Department or Clinton herself had withheld the records.
“Either response has ramifications toward a full public record,” Gowdy said. “This should be neither complicated nor time consuming.”
Committee members have lamented the State Department’s slow pace of cooperation with document requests for records created by 10 of Clinton’s top aides.
For example, the committee has received less than a quarter of one aide’s records and none from the other nine individuals.
“In the end, if President Obama and Secretary Kerry want to fulfill the president’s pledge of the most transparent administration in history, they will ensure the Executive Branch complies with the Select Committee’s outstanding requests,” Gowdy said.
Blumenthal’s emails, which were released by the committee Monday, suggest Clinton encouraged the informal intelligence memos she has previously described as “unsolicited.”
Lawmakers have expressed concerns that the information could have been unreliable because it was not vetted through the usual intelligence channels at the State Department before reaching the secretary’s desk.
