Democrats release Benghazi report

Members of a panel say Clinton never denied any requests for security

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton never personally denied any requests from diplomats for additional security at the U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, according to Democrats on a select House panel who absolved the former secretary of state and the U.S. military of wrongdoing in the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 attacks.

In a report Monday preempting the Republicans, the panel’s five Democrats said after a two-year investigation that the military could not have done anything differently that night to save the lives of four Americans killed in Libya. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens died in one of the two assaults at the diplomatic facility and CIA annex.

Democrats’ release of their own report heightened the partisanship of the inquiry. Republicans accuse the Obama administration of stonewalling important documents and witnesses, while Democrats say their panel’s primary goal is to undermine Clinton’s presidential bid.

The Libya attacks became immediate political fodder, given their timing in the weeks before President Barack Obama’s re-election, and that has not abated despite seven previous congressional investigations.

The Democrats’ report came in advance of a report by the panel’s Republican majority expected as soon as today. The GOP report is certain to have repercussions for Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The investigation led to the revelation that Clinton relied on a private email server to conduct government business, a practice now the subject of an FBI probe.

Democrats said they regretted that their 344-page report was not bipartisan, but said Republicans left them little choice after conducting “one of the longest and most partisan congressional investigations in history.” The inquiry has lasted nearly 25 months and cost more than $7 million so far.

“It is long past time for the Select Committee to conclude its work,” Democrats said in their report, titled “Honoring Courage, Improving Security and Fighting the Exploitation of a Tragedy.”

The report accuses Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the panel’s chairman, of conducting the investigation “like an overzealous prosecutor desperately trying to land a frontpage conviction.” Democrats called Gowdy’s actions “a case study in how not to conduct a credible investigation.”