Big day for Benghazi panel and Clinton

Public scrutiny will be intense for both

Tribune News Service

The House committee investigating the fatal attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 spent $1,847 on printing this year, $1,077 on bottled water and $570 on cabs and parking.

So far this year, the committee has doled out nearly $2.5 million, the bulk for about 40 salaries as high as $172,500 annually.

The House Select Committee on Benghazi has proved more costly than permanent panels on intelligence, veterans affairs, ethics and small business, according to the Committee on House Administration, which collects monthly expenditure reports from each committee. Democrats even have a website that keeps a running tab: $4,789,047 as of Tuesday.

Already facing criticism for costing taxpayers millions, the committee will face its most intense scrutiny today when it calls Hillary Clinton to testify in what is expected to be a marathon hearing featuring the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president.

The GOP-controlled committee was formed in May 2014 to examine U.S. government policies that may have contributed to the attacks that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, and the response of the Obama administration, including Clinton, then secretary of state.

Seven other congressional committees and the bipartisan independent Accountability Review Board already have looked into the assault. Nearly all of them criticized the Clinton State Department for insufficiently addressing security issues at the diplomatic facility in Benghazi.

Supporters of the committee adamantly defend its work, saying the panel has been forced to take longer to investigate because the Obama State Department has been slow to cooperate.

“This investigation has always been about one thing: the death of four Americans,” said committee member Mike Pompeo, R-Kan. “We owe it to the American people to understand what happened and do what we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again. … This investigation can only conclude when all the facts are in and the truth has been revealed.”

Critics of the committee accuse the panel of rehashing what already has been examined in an effort to damage Clinton, who has been under fire for months for another matter — exclusively using a personal email account routed through a private server at her New York home to conduct government business while she was secretary from 2009 to 2013.

“It has no new answers for the families of the four who were killed on that tragic night, or for the American people,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a committee member. “When you consider the committee’s obsessive focus on attacking Secretary Clinton, the reason becomes quite clear: The majority has little interest in the events in Benghazi except to the degree they can be used to diminish her standing in the polls.”

Clinton, who has dubbed the panel an arm of the Republican National Committee, agreed to testify as long as her testimony was delivered in public.