Clinton aide saw draft of Benghazi report
Former envoy says some suggestions part of fifinal version.
— The head of an independent review board that studied the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, said Friday that a top adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton read a draft of his findings before they were made public and made suggestions that were ultimately accepted for the fifinal version.
The inquiry was led by Thomas R. Pickering, a former ambassador, who was tasked with investigating what occurred at the State Department before, during and after the attacks. Pickering’s report was critical of the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and its Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, but did not criticize senior officals, including Clinton or Patrick F. Kennedy, the undersecretary for management.
Pickering said Friday that the top adviser to Clinton, Cheryl Mills, was among a group of people he had allowed to read the report before it was released. He said the report was independent because he and the other members of the team that conducted the inquiry — known as the Accountability Review Board —
“made all of our decisions unanimously about the report and its direction, regardless of where the comments came from.”
“Most of them were in the area of word choices,” Pickering said, refer- ring to Mills’ suggestions. “Some of the comments we accepted, and some we did not because they were not consistent with our findings and the way we chose to convey those.”
He added, “My judgment was that this did not constitute an inappropriate intervention or an attempt to change the basic report, which we were not going to accept.”
On Thursday, Mills testifified under oath before a House committee investigating the attacks in Libya — in which four Americans, among them an ambassador, were killed — that she had read the report and suggested changes, according to two congressional officials. That disclosure intensified the interest of committee Republicans who have long suggested that the report may have been influenced by Clinton and her staff
The Republicans on the committee have said that because Pickering did not interview Clinton as part of his inquiry, it was not truly seeking to capture a full picture of what took place. Pickering has said he never questioned Clinton bec ause he had already decided responsibility lay below her level.
Nick Merrill, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said, “Whatever observations were shared, the ARB decided what to include.”
“And any read of their report shows they didn’t pull any punches,” Merrill said. “It was thorough and hard-hitting, just as the secretary called for. What yesterday showed was that when questions are answered and the facts are laid out, it’s beneficial to all parties.”
The House Benghazi committee plans to question Clinton in October.