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Rep, Elijah Cummings, D-Md., questions witnesses at a hearing on Capitol Hill on June 16, 2015. Cummings and other Democrats on the special House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, say Republicans on the committee are selectively releasing certain pieces of evidence, in violation of their own rules.(Photo: AP Photo, Cliff Owen)
WASHINGTON — Democrats on the special House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks accused Republicans on the committee Wednesday of violating their own rules by selectively releasing certain evidence before the investigation is complete.
The five Democrats, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, wrote to the committee's chairman, GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, asking Republicans to release a transcript of Tuesday's deposition of Sidney Blumenthal, not just the emails he provided to the committee.
Blumenthal is a close confidant of former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose conduct surrounding the Benghazi attacks is a top focus of the GOP-led investigation. The attacks killed four Americans.
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"Rather than selectively leaking only certain information about Mr. Blumenthal, the American people deserve the benefit of Mr. Blumenthal's responses to the hundreds of questions that you and other Select Committee members asked him, including questions about these same emails," the Democrats wrote.
Gowdy said Monday the committee received about 120 new pages of emails between Blumenthal and Clinton regarding Libya. He said the emails would be added to Clinton's already-public email record.
A man walks near a charred vehicle at the entrance of the damaged American consulate building, in Benghazi, Libya, in 2013.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Mohammad Hannon, AP)
The committee interviewed Blumenthal for many hours on Tuesday behind closed doors.
"Obviously, the full transcript of Mr. Blumenthal's deposition will provide important background and context to his emails. Otherwise, there would have been no reason to hold the deposition in the first place," the Democrats wrote.
Their letter offers more evidence that the special committee has lost most, if not all, of the bipartisan cooperation that characterized its launch more than a year ago.
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