Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has agreed to testify to the House’s select committee investigating Benghazi, the group’s Democratic spokesman told CNN on Tuesday.
Paul Bell says that Clinton agreed to testify before the committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in December after being contacted months earlier by Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s ranking Democrat.
“Mr. Cummings has worked to facilitate reaching out to Sec. Clinton,” Bell wrote in an email.
A spokesman for Clinton has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The U.S. consulate in Libya was attacked on Sept. 11, 2012. Four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, were killed. Initially, the attack was thought to be perpetrated by an angry mob responding to a video made in the U.S. which mocked Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, but was later determined to be a terrorist attack.
The attack has remained a political issue for Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, since 2012. As the former first lady eyes a potential presidential bid, a number of Republicans have signaled that Benghazi will be a main line of attack against Clinton.
Sen. Rand Paul has said the attack should disqualify Clinton from higher office.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the Benghazi committee, told reporters on Tuesday that he still intends to have Clinton testify as part of the investigation.
“Every witness who has relevant information needs to be talked to,” he said.
According to a Democratic committee source, Gowdy asked Cummings to contact Clinton in September.
“As a courtesy, Ranking Member Cummings reached out to Secretary Clinton who responded that she was willing and able to testify in a public hearing — as early as December 2014 — to answer any remaining questions,” says the source.
Cummings told a reporter from The Hill on Tuesday that Clinton said, “I’ll do it, period.”
According to The Hill, Gowdy is prepared to hear from Clinton 30 days after receiving “all the [State Department] documents” on the attack.
Clinton testified for more than five hours before another House committee investigating Benghazi in January 2013, shortly before she left the State Department. At the time, Clinton acknowledged a “systemic breakdown” but said that her department was taking additional steps to increase security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.
Since then, Clinton has said her biggest regret a during the four years she served as America’s top diplomat was the Benghazi attack.
“My biggest regret is what happened in Benghazi,” Clinton said in January 2014. “It was a terrible tragedy losing four Americans, two diplomats and — now it is public so I can say — two CIA operatives.”