A senior member of former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton’s inner circle testified before a US House panel investigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Libya as a nasty spat erupted between a Republican staffer and a Democratic lawmaker who insists it is time for the committee to disband.
Jake Sullivan, a former policy director and deputy chief of staff under Clinton at the US Department of State, was questioned by the panel in a day-long session of testimony behind closed doors on Friday.
Sullivan said at the close of the day that he was proud to talk about the “extraordinary service” of his former department colleagues.
“I was happy to answer every question the committee had and now I’m looking forward to Labor Day weekend,” he told reporters, refusing to talk about the session further because of its closed-door nature.
Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, the committee’s chairman, said Sullivan was in a “unique position” to talk about how US policy in Libya required the department to have a physical presence in the country.
Sullivan is a top policy aide on Clinton’s US presidential campaign.
Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the committee, said at midday that Sullivan had answered every question.
The panel is investigating Sept. 11, 2012, attacks at the US facilities in Benghazi, which killed four Americans, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Former CIA deputy director Mike Morell is likely to be the next witness to appear before the panel, Gowdy told reporters.
Separately, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, a member of the panel, wrote in a New York Times op-ed that the committee had become “little more than a partisan tool to influence the presidential race, a dangerous precedent that will haunt [the US] Congress for decades.”
He said the panel had let down the families of those killed in the attacks.
That prompted a highly unusual and scathing attack from Jamal Ware, a spokesman for the Republican-led panel.
In an e-mail to reporters, Ware blasted Schiff, saying he had not attended enough of the panel’s meetings to levy criticism, including Friday’s session.
Schiff was traveling from California to Washington on Friday.
“You all need to ask Mr Schiff how it is he has drawn these conclusions, since he has only seen fit to attend one hour of one witness interview since the committee was constituted,” Ware said.
Cummings seized on the exchange, calling Ware’s comments a “bizarre, highly defensive and erratic statement overflowing with false claims.”
He also questioned whether Gowdy approved the comments, which he described as an attack on a member of Congress in a “direct and offensive manner that I have never seen before.”
Clinton, who is the Democratic front-runner for next year’s vote, has been dogged by criticism about her use of a private e-mail server for government business during her tenure as secretary of state.
She said on Friday that the use of a private e-mail system was not the “best choice” and acknowledged that she did not “stop and think” about the set-up when she became secretary of state in 2009.
In an interview with NBC News, Clinton did not apologize for her decision.
She said she wishes she had “made a different choice” and takes responsibility for the decision.
Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee next month.
Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s former chief of staff, answered questions for the panel for 9.5 hours on Thursday. Few details were released, but knowledgeable officials said lawmakers asked Mills about her role in preparing “talking points” for administration officials following the Benghazi attack.
The officials were not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity to discuss Mills’ appearance.
Gowdy said on Friday that inquiries that focused on a private e-mail server Clinton used while serving as secretary of state, including its set-up, came only later in the session.
“Our committee is the committee on Benghazi. It’s not the committee on e-mails,” Gowdy said.
In his op-ed, Schiff called for the panel to be shut down.
“Whatever their original purpose, the select committee’s leaders appear no longer to have any interest in Benghazi, except as the tragic events of that day may be used as a cudgel against the likely Democratic nominee for president,” he wrote.
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