Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers Thursday that no one was fired for the 2012 attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans because no one was found in dereliction of duty to warrant an immediate dismissal.
Her explanation came in a hearing at the House Select Committee on Benghazi in which Republicans tried to cast Clinton as an official who could have required more security steps in Libya, but didn’t. The GOP also criticized Clinton for trying to cover up the attack initially as something other than a planned, terrorist attack.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., was the first to ask why no one has been fired yet.
“Why didn’t you fire someone?” he asked. “In Kansas … I get asked constantly, why has no one been held accountable? How come not a single person lost a single paycheck connected to the fact that we had the first ambassador killed since 1979?”
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“How come no one has been held accountable to date?” he asked again.
“The Accountability Review Board pointed out several people working in the State Department who they thought had not carried out their responsibilities adequately, but they said that they could not find in breach of duty,” Clinton replied. “And the personnel rules and the laws that govern those decision were followed very carefully.”
“I’m not asking what the ARB did,” Pompeo said. “I’m asking what you did.”
“I followed the law, congressman,” Clinton said. “That was my responsibility.”
“You’re telling me that you had no authority to take anyone’s paycheck, to cause anyone to be fired?” he asked. “You’re telling me you were legally prohibited from doing that. Is that your position here this morning?”
“It is my position that in the absence of finding dereliction or breach of duty, there could not be immediate action taken, but there was a process that was immediately instituted, and which led to decisions being made,” Clinton said.
“Yes ma’am,” Pompeo said. “The decision was to put these back in full back pay and keep them on as employees. That was the decision that was made as a result of the processes that you put in place.”
“I will tell you, the folks in Kansas don’t think that is accountability,” he concluded.
