SPEAKER.GOV3 Hours Ago

Republicans Advance Benghazi Investigation

by Katie Boyd

House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) issued four subpoenas this week to State Department officials in connection with the administration's response to the terrorist attack in Benghazi.  As Chairman Issa notes inhis letter to Secretary Kerry, the subpoenas were made necessary by nearly two months of stalling on the part of the State Department, which was first contacted by the committee on April 29. Here's more from the letter:

"I respect the witnesses' interest in preparing to answer the Committee's questions; however, I am concerned that waiting weeks or months while the Department prepares witnesses to be interviewed creates the risk that their testimony will have been rehearsed or coached.  It does not require weeks of preparation to answer questions truthfully.  These delays also take us us further in time away from the dates of the events in question.

"These persistent delays create the appearance that the Department is dragging its feet to slow down the Committee's investigation.  …

"It is my preference that Department officials appear voluntarily to give testimony about the ARB's methodology and the facts and circumstances surrounding the September 11-12 attacks.  Their testimony will advance the Committee's understanding of the facts and prepare our Members for a hearing on the ARB.  The Department has left me with no alternative but to issue subpoenas to compel testimony from these important witnesses."

Read the full text of the letter here.

"So far, Secretary Kerry has continued the tradition of the Obama administration: delay, deny and then stonewall," Issa said in a Fox News interview discussing the subpoenas. 

"We seek the truth and these people know what happened before the terrorist attack, they know what happened the night of the attack, and we want them to be truthful and explain to us what happened and how those decisions were made," added Oversight & Government Reform Committee member Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).   

In April, five House committees released an interim report that found a "fundamental lack of understanding at the highest levels of the State Department as to the dangers presented in Benghazi, Libya, as well as a concerted attempt to insulate the Department of State from blame following the terrorist attacks."  The subpoenas issued this week will help the committee get the answers Americans deserve regarding the security failures leading up to the attack, the administration's response during and immediately following the attack, and the information it shared with the American people. 

"We are determined to get to the truth regarding the terrorist attack on our Mission in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans lost their lives," Speaker Boehner said earlier this year. "This is a matter of national security and national importance, and our investigation will in fact continue."

Click HERE to view the full Interim report on the Benghazi investigation.

Republicans Advance Benghazi Investigation
http://www.speaker.gov/general/republicans-advance-benghazi-investigation

John Hames