WASHINGTON (AP) – A longtime confidant of Hillary Rodham Clinton has been subpoenaed to testify before a special House panel investigating the deaths of four Americans at the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, according to an official familiar with the probe.
This official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the subpoena was issued by the panel headed by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. The official declined to be identified publicly because he wasn’t authorized to discuss by name an investigation still in progress.
The panel has “a number of questions” for Sidney Blumenthal, the official said, including whether he had any business arrangements that led him to send emails to Clinton and other officials concerning Libya while Clinton was secretary of state. Blumenthal was not an employee of the State Department at the time.
Clinton had initially been expected to testify this week on the September 2012 attacks that killed four Americans, including U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens, but her testimony was put off after Gowdy complained that he lacked the necessary State Department documents to thoroughly question her. Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, was in Iowa Tuesday for a campaign appearance.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, ranking Democrat on the panel, issued a statement Wednesday assailing the committee’s GOP leadership for its handling of the subpoena.