Trey Gowdy, the top House Benghazi investigator, says that Hillary Clinton must testify at least twice before his committee and that she should turn her private email server over to a third-party arbiter.
The South Carolina Republican issued a statement after a press conference Clinton held Tuesday.
Clinton addressed for the first time in public her exclusive use of private email during her four years at State. She also discussed her use of a private server which operated out of her Chappaqua, N.Y. home.
“Having finally heard from Secretary Clinton about her exclusive use of personal email with which to conduct official business while serving as Secretary of State, regrettably we are left with more questions than answers,” Gowdy said in the statement.
Questions remain over the security of the systems Clinton used to maintain her emails, Gowdy said.
Clinton said in her brief press conference that she used an email server her husband Bill used as president. She also claimed that the server was secure and that it was never compromised. She further claimed that she did not send classified documents on the email account.
But Clinton did not get into specifics about how her email server was set up or whether it was approved by the State Department.
That leaves open questions about “who authorized this exclusive use of personal email despite guidance to the contrary from both her State Department and the White House, who had access to the server from the time Secretary Clinton left office until the time—almost two years later—the State Department asked for these public records back, and who culled through the records to determine which were personal and which were public,” Gowdy said.
Clinton turned over 55,000 printed pages of emails to the State Department only in December. That occurred several months after State Department attorneys and officials who were responding to the Benghazi committee’s request for records began raising red flags over Clinton’s exclusive use of private email. While it is not illegal for federal officials to use private email accounts, employees are required to turn those documents over to their governing agencies to place in the public record. Clinton did not do that until nearly 2 years after leaving office, and only then at the request of State.
“Without access to Secretary Clinton’s personal server, there is no way for the State Department to know it has acquired all documents that should be made public, and given State’s delay in disclosing the fact Secretary Clinton exclusively used personal email to conduct State business, there is no way to accept State’s or Secretary Clinton’s certification she has turned over all documents that rightfully belong to the American people,” Gowdy said.
To help determine if both the State Department and the Benghazi committee obtained all relevant emails, Gowdy said that Clinton must “turn her server over to a neutral, detached third-party arbiter who can determine which documents should be public and which should remain private.”
“Secretary Clinton alone created this predicament, but she alone does not get to determine its outcome,” Gowdy added, also urging Clinton to testify before his committee at least twice.
Clinton has already said she will testify before the panel.
“The first appearance will be to clear up her role and resolve issues surrounding her exclusive use of personal email to conduct official business,” Gowdy said.
“Our committee will then call her to appear before the Committee in a public hearing to answer questions specifically regarding Libya and the Benghazi terrorist attacks that took the lives of our four brave fellow citizens.”
