Benghazi

On Sept. 11, 2012, four Americans were killed in attacks on a diplomatic compound and a CIA outpost in Benghazi, Libya. The events of that night had been the subject of seven investigations that produced tens of thousands of pages and led to changes in U.S. diplomatic security worldwide. Then, in May 2014, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted along party lines to create a special committee to investigate further. Republicans had said there was an effort by the White House to protect President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign by falsely claiming that the attack was a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Muslim video rather than a planned act of terrorism. Democrats said the committee’s mission was to exploit a tragedy to discredit Obama, boost Republican fundraising and undermine Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who was U.S. secretary of state at the time of the attack. Two years later, the committee issued its report. It won’t be the last word on what happened.

The Republicans who led the House Benghazi select committee released an 800-page report in June 2016. While the report questioned Clinton’s judgment, saying she should have recognized that extremists posed a risk to U.S. officials in Libya before the attacks, it found no new evidence of wrongdoing by her. Democrats on the committee released their own report that said the investigation, which cost taxpayers $7 million, unveiled little new information while targeting Clinton politically. The committee issued subpoenas in March 2015 for more Clinton e-mails after it was reported that she used a personal e-mail account while she was secretary of state; Clinton testified before the committee in October 2015. Prior to the Benghazi select committee’s investigation, the attack had already been reviewed by Congress, news organizations and the State Department’s independent Accountability Review Board, which blamed mid-level officials for inadequate security measures. The Republican-led House Intelligence Committee released a report in November 2014 following its own two-year investigation. That report repudiated “the swirl of rumors and unsupported allegations” over the Benghazi assault and found there was never a “stand-down” order blocking rescue efforts, though other Republicans questioned that report’s accuracy.