the last word
Final House GOP Benghazi report concludes Hillary Clinton, Obama administration failed on multiple levels
One day after House Democrats released a report calling the Benghazi investigation a "partisan sham," Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee released a final report of their own with a very different conclusion. The report, made public Tuesday, cites failures by the Obama administration, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to protect the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya ahead of the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks. The report also says the CIA overlooked the threat in Libya despite multiple warnings, and that the Defense Department failed to deploy military assets in a timely manner.
While detractors widely paint the Benghazi investigation as a partisan attack on Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner is not the central focus of the report, though she is mentioned specifically in the document's final section. There, Clinton is criticized for using a private email account and the Obama administration is accused of attempting to block the investigation into the incident. "What may appear at first blush to be a lack of competence on behalf of the State Department now appears fully intentional and coordinated," the report says, according to a copy obtained by Politico. "Delaying the production of documents sought by letter, informal request, or subpoena has decided political advantages for those opposing the investigation."