The rest, tomorrow at noon on cspan. The first part of the hearing is about 4. 5 hours. Representative gowdy good morning. The committee will come to order. The chair notes the presence of a quorum. Good morning. Welcome, madam secretary. Welcome to each of you. This is a public hearing of the benghazi select committee. Just a couple of quick administrative matters before we start. Madam secretary, there are predetermined breaks, but i want to make it absolutely clear we can take a break for any reason or for no reason. If you or anyone, just simply alert me, then we will take a break and it can be for any reason or for no reason. To our guests, we are happy to have you here. The witness deserves to hear the questions and the members deserve to hear the answers. So proper decorum must be observed at all times no reaction to questions or answers, no disruptions. Some committees take an incremental approach to decorum. I do not. This is your one and only notice. Madam secretary, the Ranking Member and i will give Opening Statements and then you will be recognized for your Opening Statement. And then after that, the members will alternate from one side to the other. And because you have already been sworn, we will go straight to your opening. So i will now recognize myself and then recognize mr. Cummings, and then you, madam secretary. D and then you, madam secretary. Chris stevens, sawn smith, glen doherty and tyrone wood served this country with courage and with honor. And they were killed under circumstances that most of us could never imagine. Terrorists pour through the front gate of an american facility attacking people and property with machine guns, mortars and fire. It is important that we remember how these four men died. It is equally important that we remember how these four men lived and why. They were more than four images on a television screen. They were husbands and fathers and sons and brothers and family and friends. They were americans who believed in service and sacrifice. Many people speak of a better world but do little about it. These four went out and actually tried to make it better. And it cost them their lives. So we know what they gave us. What do we owe them . Justice for those that killed them. We owe their families our ever lasting gratitude, respect. We owe them and each other the truth. The truth about why we were in libya. The truth about what we were doing fwh ldo ing in libya. The truth about the escalate in in libya. The truth about request for additional personnel. The truth about requests for additional equipment. The truth about where and why our military was positioned as it was on the anniversary of 9 11. The truth about what was happening and being discussed in washington while our people were under attack. The truth about what led to the attacks and the truth about what our government told the American People after the attacks. Why were there so many requests for more security personnel and equipment and why were those requests denied in washington . Why did the state department compound and facility not even come close to meeting proper security specifications . What policies were we pursuing in libya that required a physical presence . Who in washington was aware of the escalating violence . What precautions, if any, were taken on the anniversary of 9 11 . What happened in washington after the first attack . And what was our response to that attack . What did the military do or not do . What did our leaders in washington do or not do and when . Why was the American Public given such diverge enter accounts of what caused these attacks . And why is it so hard to get information from the very government these four men represented, served and sacrificed for . Even after an accountability review board and a half dozen congressional investigations, these and other questions still linger. These questions linger because previous investigations were not thorou thorough. These questions lingered because those previous investigations were narrow in scape and either incapable or unwilling to access the facts and evidence necessary to answer all relevant questions. So the house of representatives, including some democrats i hasten to add, asked this committee to write the final accounting of what happened in benghazi. This committee is the First Committee to review more than 50,000 pages of documents, because we insisted that they be produced. This committee is the First Committee to demand access to more eyewitnesses because serious investigations talk to as many eyewitnesses as possible. This committee is the First Committee to thoroughly and individually interview scores of other witnesses, many of them for the first time. This committee is the First Committee to review thousands of pages of documents from Top State Department personnel. This committee is the First Committee to demand access to relevant documents from the cia, the fbi, the department of defense and even the white house. This committee is the First Committee to demand access to the emails to and from ambassador Chris Stevens. How could an investigation possibly be considered serious without reviewing the emails of the person most knowledgeable about libya . This committee is the First Committee, the only committee, to uncover the fact that secretary clinton exclusively used personnel email on her own personal server for official business and kept the Public Record, including emails about benghazi and libya, in her own custody and control for almost two years after she left office. You will hear a lot today about the accountability review board. Secretary clinton has mentioned it more than 70 times in her previous testimony before congress. But when you hear about the arb, you should know the state Department Leadership hand picked the members of the arb. The arb never interviewed secretary clinton. The arb never reviewed her emails. Secretary clintons top adviser was allowed to review and suggest changes to the arb before the public ever saw it. Theres no transcript of the arb interviews. Its impossible to mow whether all relevant questions were asked and answered. Because theres no transcript, it is also impossible to cite the arb interviews with any particularity at all. That is not independent. That is not accountability. That is not a serious investigation. You will hear there were previous congressional investigations into benghazi. That is true. It should make you wonder why those investigations failed to interview so many witnesses and access so many documents. If those previous congressional investigations were really serious and thorough, how did they miss ambassador stevens emails. If those previous investigations were serious and thorough, how did they miss secretary clintons emails . If those congressional investigations really were serious and thorough, why did they fail to interview dozens of Key State Department witnesses, including agents on the ground who experienced the attacks firsthand . Just last month, three years after benghazi, top aides finally returned documents to the state department. A month ago this Committee Received 1,500 new pages of secretary clintons emails related to libya and benghazi. Three years after the attacks. A little over two weeks ago, this Committee Received nearly 1,400 pages of ambassador stevens emails, three years after the attacks. It is impossible to conduct a serious fact centric investigation without access to the documents from the former secretary of state, the ambassador who knew more about libya than anybody else and testimony from witnesses who survived the attacks. Madam secretary, i understand there are people frankly in both parties who have suggested that this investigation is about you. Let me assure you, it is not. And let me assure you why it is not. This investigation is about four people who were killed representing our country on foreign soil. It is about what happened before, during and after the attacks that killed them. It is about what this country owes to those who risk their lives to serve it. And it is about the fundamental obligation of government to tell the truth always to the people that is purports to represent. Madam secretary, not a Single Member of this committee signed up to investigate you or your email. We signed up to investigate and therefore honor the lives of four people that we sent into a dangerous country to represent us. And to do everything we can to prevent it from happening to others. Our committee has interviewed half 100 witnesses. Not a single one of them has been named clinton until today. You were the secretary of state for this country at all relevant times. So, of course, the committee is going to want to talk to you. You are an important witness. You are one important witness among half a hundred important witnesses. And i do understand you wanted to come sooner than today. So let me be clear why that did not happen. You had an unusual email arrangement which meant the state department could not produce your emails to us. You made exclusive use of personal email and a personal server. When you left the state department, you kept the Public Record to yourself for almost two years. And it was you and your attorneys who decided what to return and what to delete. Those discussions were your decisions, not our decisions. It was only in march of this year we learned of this email arrangement. And since we learned of this email arrangement, we have interviewed dozens of witnesses only one of whom was solely related to your email arrangement. And that was the shortest interview of all, because that witness invoked his fifth ame amendment privilege against incrimination. Making sure the Public Record is complete is what we do. Its important and remains important that this committee have access to all of ambassador stevens emails and other witnesses and it is important to gain access to all of your emails. Your emails are no less or no more important than the emails of anyone else. It just took us a little bit longer to get them and it garnered a little more attention in the process. I want you to take note during this hearing how many times Congressional Democrats call on this administration to make long awaited documents available to us. They wont. Take note of how many witnesses Congressional Democrats ask us to schedule for interview. They wont. We would be closer to finding out what happened and writing the final report if democrats on this committee had helped us just a little bit pursue the facts. But if the dp democrats on thi committee had their way, dozens of witnesses never would have been interviewed, your Public Record would still be prprivate thousands of documents would never be accessed and we wouldnt have the emails of our own ambassador. That may be smart politics, but it is a lousy way to run a serious investigation. There are certain characteristics that make our country unique in the anales of history. Part that was selfgovernance comes selfscrutiny, even of the highest officials. Our country is Strong Enough to handle the truth, and our fellow citizens expect us to pursue the truth wherever the facts take us. So this committee is going to do what we pledged to do and what should have been done, frankly, a long time ago, which is interview all relevant witnesses, examine all relevant evidence and access all relevant documents. And were going to pursue the truth in a manner worthy of the memory of the four people who lost their lives and worthy of the respect of our fellow citizens. We are going to write that final accounting of what happened in benghazi. We would like to do it with your help and the help of our democrat colleagues. But make no mistake, we are going to do it nonetheless because understanding what happened in benghazi goes to the heart of who we are as a country and the promises we make to those we send into harms way. They deserve the truth. They deserve the whole truth. They deserve nothing but the truth. The people we work for deserve the truth. The friends and family of the four who lost their lives deserve the truth. We will find the truth. Because there is no stut atute limitations on the truth. With that, i would recognize my friend from maryland. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Madam secretary, i want to thank you very much for being here today to testify before congress on this very important issue. This is your third time. This week our chairman, mr. Gowdy, was interviewed in a lengthy media profile. During his interview he complained that he was and i quote he has an impossible job. Thats what the chairman said, impossible job. He said its impossible to conduct a serious, fact centric investigation in such a, quote, political environment. I have Great Respect for the chairman. But on this score, he is absolutely wrong. In fact, it has been done by his own republican colleagues in the house on this very issue benghazi. The republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee conducted an extensive bipartisan twoyear investigation and issued a detailed report. The senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate HomelandSecurity Committee also conducted a bipartisan investigation. Those bipartisan efforts respected and honored the memories of the four brave americans who gave their lives in benghazi. Ambassador Chris Stevens, sean smith, tyrone woods and glenn doherty. The problem is that the Republican Caucus did not like the answers they got from those investigations. So they set up this select committee with no rules, no deadline and an unlimited budget. And they set them loose, madam secretary, because you are running for president. Clearly, it is possible to conduct a serious bipartisan investigation. What is impossible is for any reasonable person to continue denying that republicans are squandering millions of taxpayer dollars on this abusive effort to derail secretary clintons president ial campaign. In the chairmans interview he tried to defend against this criticism by attempting to cast himself as the victim. And he complained about attacks on the credibility of the select committee. His argument would be more compelling if republicans werent leading the charge. As we all know, representative kevin mccarthy, Speaker Boehners second in command and the chairmans close friend admitted that they established the select committee to drive down secretary clintons poll numbers. Democrats didnt say that. The second in command in the house said that, a republican. Republican congressman Richard Hannah said the select committee was, quote, designed, designed to go after secretary clinton. And one of the chairmans only hand picked investigators, a selfproclaimed conservative republican, charged that he was fired in part for not going along with these plans to, quote, hyperfocus on hillary clinton, end of quote. These reflect what we have seen for the past year. Lets look at the facts. Since january, republicans have canceled every single hearing on our schedule for the entire year except for this one, secretary clinton. They canceled numerous interviews that they planned with the Defense Department and the cia officials. Instead of doing that, they said they were going what they were going to do, republicans zeroed in on secretary clinton, her speech writers, her i. T. Staffers and her campaign officials. This is what the republicans did, not the democrats. When Speaker Boehner established this select committee, he justified it by arguing that it would, quote, cross jurisdictional lines. I assume he meant we would focus on more than just secretary of state. But, madam secretary, you are sitting there by yourself. The secretary of defense is not on your left. The director of the cia is not on your right. Thats because republicans abandoned their own plans to question those top officials. Instead of being cross jurisdictional, republicans just crossed them off the list. Last weekend, the chairman told the republican colleagues to shut up and stop talking about the select committee. What i want to know is this. And this is a key question. Why tell the republicans to shut up when they are telling the truth but not when they are attacking secretary clinton with reckless accusations that are demon strably false . Why not tell them to shut up then . Carly fiorina has said that secretary clinton has blood on her hands. Mike huckabee accused her of ignoring the warning calls from dieing americans in benghazi. Senator ryan paul said benghazi was a 3 a. M. Phone call that she never picked up. And senator Lindsey Graham tweeted, where the hell were you on the night of the benghazi attack . Everyone on this panel knows these accusations are baseless, from our own investigation and all those before it. Yet republican members of this select committee remain silent. On monday, the democrats issued a report showing that none of the 54 witnesses the committee interviewed substantiated these wild republican claims. Secretary clinton did not order the military to stand down, and she neither approved nor denied requests for additional security. I ask our report be included in the official report for the hearing. Without objection. What is so telling is that we issued virtually the same report a year ago. Same report. When we first joined the select committee, i asked my staff to put together a complete report and database setting forth the questions that have been asked about the attacks and all of the answers that were provided in the eight previous investigations. I asked that this report also be included in the record, mr. Chairman. Without objec