Democrats and Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi sparred Tuesday over whether the committee will vote next week on the release of the Sidney Blumenthal transcripts.
After Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the committee’s ranking member, issued a statement blasting GOP members for their handling of Blumenthal’s closed-door deposition and noted that the chairman had agreed to schedule a vote on the matter for July 8, majority aides said no such vote had been called.
“House rules require a vote, Democrats insisted on that vote, and the Chairman has now confirmed that he will follow the rules and schedule a vote,” Cummings said in his statement.
But a majority spokesperson said Chairman Trey Gowdy had not called a vote for July 8. In fact, the committee has no hearings or meetings on the books next week, the spokesperson said.
Republicans have resisted Democratic calls to release the transcript by pointing out that doing so would be treating Blumenthal differently than other witnesses.
Democrats have argued that the investigation has devolved into a political crusade against Clinton in an effort to damage her candidacy for president.
In a letter to Cummings June 22, Gowdy said releasing the transcript of the committee’s interview with Blumenthal could alert future witnesses to certain lines of inquiry and “impact the recollections of other witnesses.”
While Gowdy wrote in the letter of his intentions to schedule a meeting so members could discuss “why this witness’ transcript should be treated differently than all others previously interviewed and all others to come,” majority staff said no meeting had been scheduled for next week.
But Democratic staff insisted Gowdy had indeed called a vote for next Wednesday.
“If they’ve changed their minds now, you’ll have to ask them why,” a minority spokesperson said, noting the chairman had informed the Democrats of the vote on Friday.
Blumenthal’s testimony before the committee June 16 marked the first time lawmakers had deposed a witness in their year-long probe of the security failures that led to the September 11, 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
The former Clinton aide’s role in the probe fell under scrutiny after the committee revealed he had submitted dozens of emails between himself and Clinton that the State Department never disclosed.
Committee Democrats have called for the release of the transcript to provide “context” to the batch of 60 emails, which the committee released earlier this month.
