Rep. Schiff Blasts Republican Benghazi Report
Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a Member of the Benghazi Select Committee and Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement after Republicans released their partisan report on the tragic attack in Benghazi:
"After seven million taxpayer dollars and two years, the Republican Benghazi report fails to alter the core conclusions of the eight other investigations that went before. In an eight hundred page report which attempts to substitute quantity for quality, it adds little that is appreciably new. There is no evidence that the military was ordered to stand down, no evidence of gun running, no evidence that the President or Secretary of State interfered with security in Benghazi or the response to the tragedy and no evidence of politicization – except by the Select Committee itself.
"The Chairman attempts to make a virtue out of the fact it could produce no new evidence with which to criticize Secretary Clinton, despite two years of trying, arguing that this was never their intention. But this claim was belied by Republic Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who admitted the purpose behind establishing the committee was to drive down the Secretary's numbers. More important, the partisan goal of the Select Committee was demonstrated by the behavior of the committee itself.
"When this investigation began, Chairman Gowdy promised to put aside partisanship and to work with Democrats – regrettably, the reality was very different. The Majority excluded Democrats from participating in certain interviews and even concealed them, issued subpoenas with no Minority consultation or vote, withheld transcripts, subjected Secretary Clinton to an eleven hour hearing, and produced its official Committee report without any input or review from Democrats. And in their report today, some Republicans felt that Chairman Gowdy didn’t go far enough in attacking Secretary Clinton and issued their own addendum that is so blatantly political it should have been issued by the Republican National Committee, not a congressional committee.
"Ultimately, the Republican's conduct of the committee and its report will go down as one of the worst abuses of Congress's extraordinary investigative powers in its history. Far from tarnishing the reputations of those who tried valiantly to save American lives during the wake of that tragedy, the GOP members of the Select Committee have only impugned themselves.”
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