The House Select Committee on Benghazi delivered a subpoena Tuesday night demanding testimony from Sidney Blumenthal, a Hillary Clinton insider who worked for the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.
The subpoena has been expected since Monday, when word leaked out that Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., was planning to seek testimony from Blumenthal.
A source close to the process confirmed to the Washington Examiner Tuesday night that Blumenthal was called for deposition through a subpoena earlier in the day.
The New York Times reported Monday that Blumenthal was informally advising Clinton when she was in the government.
Specifically, Blumenthal reportedly was advising Libyan companies, and used intelligence he gleaned from that work to create reports that got circulated at the State Department. The Times said Blumenthal was behind the initial report that the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, was the result of a response to a video that insulted the Prophet Mohammed.
Republicans have spent the last few years investigating those initial reports, which the Obama administration was forced to walk back after the first few weeks.
Democrats in Congress have said the real goal of the Benghazi Committee is to keep the issue of Benghazi alive to harass Clinton as she runs for president. Several Democrats have argued that the committee has done little else but stoke political anger at Clinton.
But the committee spokesperson dared Democrats to complain now that the committee is getting closer to hearing testimony from key witnesses like Blumenthal and Clinton herself.
“Those who complain about the committee’s speed don’t get to complain when the committee cuts to the chase,” he said.
Gowdy has asked Clinton to testify twice before the committee, but her lawyer has insisted she would only appear once.
