Committee Democrats Waste More Than $2 Million Obstructing Benghazi Investigation

January 29, 2016
Press Release

Washington, DC – Select Committee on Benghazi Press Secretary Matt Wolking released the following statement regarding Committee Democrats spending more than $2 million in taxpayer money on politically-motivated efforts to undermine and obstruct the investigation into a terrorist attack that killed four Americans:
 
“While Democrats on the Benghazi Committee have made a big show of pretending to care about the cost of this investigation, they’ve made zero meaningful contributions and spent virtually all of their time and effort on undermining and obstructing the committee’s work, directly contributing to its length and cost. Their incessant politicization of legitimate congressional oversight is appalling and grotesque, and only proves that the process could have been completed much faster if Democrats had helped with the work instead of delay it. Of course, their motivations are obvious: they’ve endorsed the former Secretary of State for president, and will no doubt continue to act as a full-fledged arm of her campaign, wasting taxpayer dollars on everything but getting answers for the families of the victims who were left without adequate security on September 11 in one of the most dangerous places in the world.”
 
Democrats’ spending has topped $2 million, or more than one-third of the committee’s total cost.
 
Republicans on the Benghazi Committee have conducted a thorough, fact-centered investigation, interviewing 69 witnesses to date, including 55 who had never before been interviewed by a congressional committee. Seven of those were eyewitnesses to the attacks. Witnesses have said the committee’s questions were “very constructive” and demonstrated “professionalism and respect.” Republicans have also obtained and reviewed roughly 100,000 pages of documents, about 70,000 of which had never before been obtained or reviewed by a congressional committee.
 
In contrast, Democrats on the Benghazi Committee:

  • Can’t name a single witness from the Obama administration they have requested to interview.

  • Can’t name a single new document they have requested from the Obama administration.

  • Launched an “asked and answered database” in September 2014, before the committee interviewed a single new witness and before it obtained roughly 55,000 new pages of documents.

  • Claimed “On February 13, 2015, the State Department completed its production to the Select Committee of Secretary Clinton’s emails relating to the Benghazi attacks,” two months before the committee received another 100 pages in June and five months before the committee received another 1,500 pages in September.

  • Issued more than 60 press releases (and counting) defending their endorsed candidate for president.

  • Did not deny “strategic coordination with the campaign” of their endorsed candidate. 

  • Are “doing her work for her,” according to CNN.

The committee is still waiting to receive crucial documents from the State Department and CIA, and still waiting for key witnesses to be made available for interviews.