A former adviser to Hillary Clinton has turned over about 60 previously undisclosed emails related to Libya and the deadly 2012 siege in Benghazi, according to the leader of the panel investigating the assault.
Sidney Blumenthal has given the House Select Committee on Benghazi “nearly 60 new emails regarding Libya and Benghazi,” panel chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said in a statement late Monday night.
{mosads}The roughly 120 pages of messages between Blumenthal and Clinton were produced late Friday in response to a request by the select committee.
“These emails were not previously produced to the Committee or released to the public, and they will help inform tomorrow’s deposition,” Gowdy said.
He said the panel is “prepared to release these emails, but where practicable our internal processes include consultation with” Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the panel’s top Democrat, before release.
If Cummings agrees to make the newfound messages public “we will add to the former Secretary’s public email record and release these shortly,” according to Gowdy. “If not, we will do so after the required five days has passed.”
The revelation comes the day before Blumenthal is due to give what could end up being a daylong, private deposition before the 12-member panel about what he knew of the events surrounding the attacks that left four Americans dead.
The select committee is also expected to press Blumenthal, who was in Libya seeking business with the transitional government at the time, about the personal email server Clinton used while serving as secretary of State.
Last month the State Department released nearly 300 emails from Clinton’s private email server that showed she received about 25 memos from Blumenthal regarding Libya while she was secretary of State, including one that blamed the Benghazi attacks on an Internet video depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The next day Blumenthal sent another memo to Clinton citing “sensitive sources” who believed it was an act of terrorism.
A State Department spokesman dismissed the notion that the agency had not been completely forthcoming with the House panel.
“The Department is working diligently to publish to its public website all of the emails received from former Secretary Clinton through the [Freedom of Information Act] process. We provided the Committee with a subset of documents that matched its request and will continue to work with them going forward,” Alec Gerlach said in a statement.
“Secretary Kerry has been clear that the State Department will be both transparent and thorough in its obligations to the public on this matter,” he added.
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