This morning, the House Select Committee on Benghazi released its final report, the result of a 26-month investigation into the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the American embassy in Libya that killed six, including American Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Rep. Trey Gowdy led the charge in investigating Benghazi, largely looking to determine whether the Obama Administration and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had committed any major errors in preparing for or addressing the attacks, and whether the attacks could have been prevented. Clinton’s team has already derided the report as a partisan witch-hunt, and the State Department claims the report says “nothing new.”
It is true that the report doesn’t deliver a smoking gun. That doesn’t mean, of course, that the accusations leveled in the report will not severely erode your confidence in the government’s—and especially Team Clinton’s—capacity to handle a very incendiary foreign emergency. The report is likely, also, to have an impact on Clinton’s presidential aspirations.
A few things you’ll need to know about the report and how it involves Clinton.
1. Hillary Clinton was worried about her legacy.
Clinton appears to have been informed about the dangers her team was facing in Libya but, as the report notes, she allowed the U.S. embassy to remain open, even as other countries were closing theirs. The House team accuses Clinton of having ulterior motives other than ensuring Libyan democracy stabilized.
“Secretary Clinton pushed for the U.S. to intervene in Libya, which at the time represented one of her signature achievements. To leave Benghazi would have been viewed as her failure and prompted unwelcome scrutiny of her choices.”
2. Longtime Clinton friend Sidney Blumenthal is involved.
According to emails made available to the Benghazi committee, longtime Clinton-friend Sidney Blumenthal, who was then working on business ventures in Libya, served as an informal adviser to the Obama Administration and the State Department about matters on the ground.
Before the attacks, he encouraged Clinton to make Libya her crowning achievement.
“This is an historic moment and you will be credited for realizing it…When Qaddafi is finally removed, you should of course make a public statement before the cameras wherever you are, even in the driveway of your vacation house. You must go on camera. You must establish yourself in the historical record at this moment.”
Thanks to House Democrats who accidentally released an email from Sidney Blumenthal to the State Department in their response to the Benghazi report, we also know that Blumenthal received more than $20,000 for his work with pro-Clinton non-profits Media Matters and Correct the Record.
3. Clinton Aide Cheryl Mills didn’t exactly help the investigation.
The State Department conducted its own internal review of the events leading up to Benghazi, but according to drafts of House report made available to press, they occasionally ran into interference from Hillary Clinton’s deputy Chief of Staff, Cheryl Mills.
Mills is also involved in the ongoing investigation into Hillary Clinton’s missing emails from her time at the State Department, when Clinton was using a private server.
4. State might have stalled the rescue.
The report accuses Clinton’s team of stalling efforts to extract Americans from Libya during the attack.
“What has also emerged is a picture of the State Department eating up valuable time by insisting that certain elements of the U.S. military respond to Libya in civilian clothes and that it not use vehicles with United States markings. Both restrictions appear to have been concessions to the Libyan government that did not want an identifiable U.S. military presence on the streets of Libya. We will never know exactly how long these conditions delayed the military response but that they were even a part of the discussion is troubling.
5. Hillary Clinton seemed confused as to why the attack was happening.
According to the report:
“And at the same time the State Department appeared to waste time on what our soldiers would wear, it also appeared to waste time and focus on the YouTube video that the administration would later blame, falsely, for the attack. It has emerged that during an emergency call at 7:30 p.m. on the night of the attack involving Secretary Clinton and other high-level officials from the Department of Defense, State Department, and CIA that a full five of the eleven action items from the meeting related to the video.”
She later issued the administration’s only statement on the attack, according to the House report, citing the anti-Muslim YouTube video as the cause of the attack. The report says the State Department discussed other causes only privately.
