Congressional Republicans released dozens of previously undisclosed emails Monday that revealed new details about the relationship between Sidney Blumenthal and Hillary Clinton, and seem likely to revive questions about whether Clinton has turned over all of her work-related emails, as she has claimed.
“Once again the Benghazi Committee uncovers information that should already be part of the public record but was not made available to the American people or congressional investigators,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, in a statement announcing the new information.
“These emails should have been part of the public record when Secretary Clinton left office and at a bare minimum included when the State Department released Clinton’s self-selected records on Libya,” he added. “For that reason, the committee has made the decision to release the latest set of Clinton’s public records unearthed by the committee.”
The South Carolina Republican has been critical of the fact that the State Department may have initially withheld the new emails from the committee when lawmakers requested Libya-related records earlier this year. Gowdy said a significant portion of the information it now has about Clinton has come from emails involving Blumenthal.
“Nearly half of the entire public record of Secretary Clinton’s regarding Benghazi and Libya is either from Mr. Blumenthal or discussion about Mr. Blumenthal’s emails. This correspondence far and away dominates all other emails we have from Secretary Clinton regarding Benghazi and Libya,” Gowdy said.
The emails shed light on what Clinton was discussing with her former aide during the months-long gaps that exist in the batch of emails published by the State Department last month.
“It is significant our top diplomat was directly receiving unvetted intelligence information, which may have come from sources with financial interests in Libya,” Gowdy said.
Blumenthal’s communications with the former secretary of state include informal intelligence memos, advice on how to handle matters in the United Nations and news clippings that Clinton may have found helpful.
Agency officials have remained silent on whether the State Department or Clinton herself failed to produce the records, which were provided by Blumenthal after he was subpoenaed by the committee last month.
“It is clear from these emails Secretary Clinton encouraged Mr. Blumenthal to send them in some instances calling into question her previous characterization of them as ‘unsolicited,'” Gowdy said.
