Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin is scheduled to testify before the House committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in the coming weeks.
Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) told reporters on Thursday that Abedin would appear before a closed-door meeting of the committee at some point before Clinton’s public testimony on Oct. 22.
{mosads}Abedin serves a top role in Clinton’s front-running 2016 presidential campaign and was her deputy chief of staff during Clinton’s time as secretary of State. Abedin is also the wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).
The news about her appearance came after another former State Department official, Bryan Pagliano, briefly appeared before the committee, where he invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Pagliano — a former IT official who assisted in setting up Clinton’s personal email server — was brought in to plead the Fifth in person despite the protests of Democrats on the panel. He had previously turned down an offer to give a “preview” interview to Senate lawmakers before striking a deal granting him immunity.
“If Chairman Gowdy actually wanted to find out what Mr. Pagliano knows, he would follow the lead of Senate Republicans and consider immunity — something Democrats would support,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the panel’s top Democrat, said in a statement. “The chairman has already publicly rejected that idea, so today’s event is pure political theater.”