Trey Gowdy defends two-year Benghazi probe, which was riddled with partisan conflict

By Karoun Demirjian June 28 at 2:25 PM

Rep. Trey Gowdy on Tuesday defended his committee’s lengthy and expansive Benghazi probe, saying that it was intended to reveal the facts and not to torpedo Hillary Clinton’s presidential chances.

The South Carolina Republican, a former federal prosecutor, insisted that former House speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and current speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) never “asked me to do anything about presidential politics” when the panel was formed in May 2014.

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The report provided no new evidence of specific wrongdoing by then-Secretary of State Clinton. Its overall narrative does not differ substantially from other reports issued by Congress. It implicates intelligence and military leaders for failing to scramble an adequate response in the hours after the initial attack occurred.

The probe has been frequently called a partisan witch hunt by Democrats, as Gowdy and his Democratic counterparts on the committee — led by Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings — often clashed over witness interviews and testimony. Relationships between the panel members deteriorated in recent months, with Republicans charging Democrats with “leaking” witness transcripts and Democrats countering that Republicans were misleading the public with their descriptions of the interviews.

Gowdy said there was new information unearthed by the investigation, which he said interviewed 81 new witnesses and reviewed 75,000 additional pages of documents. The most prominent witness was Clinton herself, who managed to remain calm under a marathon grilling before the committee last October.

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