House GOP Ramps Up Benghazi Inquiry

Boehner to appoint special committee, while Issa supboenas Kerry
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 2, 2014 2:00 PM CDT
House GOP Ramps Up Benghazi Inquiry
House Speaker John Boehner in a March file photo.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

This week's release of White House emails related to the Benghazi attack of 2012 seems to have cinched one political reality: The issue is going to be making headlines at least through the midterms, much to the delight of the GOP base, reports Politico. Two key developments today all but guaranteed it—John Boehner announced that he would form a select committee to investigate the attack that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, and Darrell Issa said he would subpoena John Kerry to testify before his House Oversight panel, reports the Hill.

"What else about Benghazi is the Obama administration still hiding from the American people?" asked Boehner, who said the emails showed that the administration withheld documents from congressional investigators. Republicans have seized on one email in particular in which a deputy national security adviser advises then UN ambassador Susan Rice to make clear on the Sunday talk shows that the attack stemmed from an inflammatory YouTube video and wasn't the result of a "broader policy failure." But the White House said that advice merely reflected its understanding of what happened in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The newly aggressive inquiry, of course, also could haunt Hillary Clinton should she run in 2016, notes AP. (More Benghazi stories.)

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