The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Monday called on Secretary of State John Kerry to testify about a 2013 press briefing video that was intentionally altered to remove a sensitive discussion about the Iran nuclear agreement.
A committee aide told the Washington Examiner that the letter was sent Monday, and the State Department told reporters that it received the letter and was considering it.
“Yes, we have received this request,” State spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said. “We will discuss it with the committee as we do with any request to testify.”
She said it wasn’t clear yet whether Kerry would testify. However, Kerry himself seemed to agree with Republicans last week, when he said the editing of the video was “stupid” and “clumsy.”
“I would like to find out exactly what happened and why,” he said.
The State Department has been under increasing pressure to answer questions about the edited video, including who did it, and why. But State so far has said it is done investigating the issue, and has said it hit a “dead end” in its own probe.
The State Department has refused to call its own work an “investigation.”
In the portion of the video that was removed, then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who is now the White House communications director, seemed to admit that officials sometimes lie to the public for national security reasons. After it was discovered missing, State replaced the section of video, and Psaki said she was not aware of any editing that was done.
Last week, the Oversight committee asked State for any documents it has about how the video came to be edited. On Monday, however, Trudeau said the department might have to make a “partial” reply.
“We are looking at creating at least a partial … we’re going to be as responsive as we certainly can,” she said. “We believe that we can be partially responsive.”
