Dems release Mills’ Benghazi testimony
Democrats on the House committee investigating the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on Wednesday released a full transcript of testimony by a top aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The release comes a day before Clinton — the Democratic front-runner for president — is set to testify at a public hearing. Democrats had promised to release the transcript for more than a week, amid an escalating partisan feud on the 12-member committee.
The 307-page transcript reveals testimony given behind closed doors last month by Cheryl Mills, who was Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department. Democrats have complained about “selective and out-of-context leaks” that they said mischaracterized testimony by Mills and other witnesses.
Democrats said the transcript includes no evidence to support claims by some Republicans who do not serve on the panel that Clinton or other top officials ordered the military to “stand down” during the 2012 attacks. The transcript also offers no evidence that Clinton denied requests for additional security, Democrats said.
The transcript includes comments by Mills indicating that Clinton was “deeply engaged during and after the attacks and took action to ensure the safety and security of U.S. personnel, even as intelligence assessments of the attacks changed more than once during this period,” Democrats said in a statement.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel’s top Democrat, said that Democrats “are now correcting the record” by releasing the entirety of Mills’ testimony. He and other Democrats say the $4.5 million investigation is a taxpayerfunded campaign to damage Clinton’s bid for president. After 17 months, it has now gone on longer than the 1970s Watergate probe.
The panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, says the committee has been and remains focused on those killed in Benghazi and on providing a definitive account of the attacks.
Jamal Ware, a spokesman for Gowdy, said release of the transcript showed that, “once again, Democrats on the Select Committee demonstrate that for them, this is all about Hillary Clinton — and not about the four brave Americans who were killed by terrorists in Benghazi.”
Ware noted that after her testimony, Mills thanked Gowdy and others on the committee for their “professionalism.”
Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department employee Sean Smith and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty died in the Benghazi attack.
No new evidence was introduced to suggest, as some Republicans have claimed, that Clinton or any other top official ordered the military to “stand down” during the siege of the diplomatic post or a subsequent attack on a nearby CIA facility. Mills also batted down the idea that Clinton denied requests for more security or ordered Stevens to Benghazi that evening, or of U.S. officials engaged in an elaborate gun-running scheme from eastern Libya.
As the attack unfolded, Mills said Clinton was so engaged in the response that “it took some people aback when she even decided to go to a staff-level” meeting.
“What she really was communicating that night is, ‘I’m here because I want my team safe. I’m not here … for any other reason,’ ” Mills recalled.
“Stevens was someone she had a lot of confidence and respect for, and his guidance and his way was a compelling one,” Mills said. “And the notion that he had been murdered, I think, was something that all of us thought was unbearable, but I think she particularly felt the pain of that.”
Although she didn’t know the other men, Mills said Clinton “felt very strongly about claiming all of them” and “honoring their service.”