Home » SC Rep Blasts Hillary On Benghazi: “You Can’t Lie To Congress Whether You’re Sworn In Or Not”
Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who serves on several House committees including the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, discussed the Benghazi scandal in an interview with the Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas. Particularly, he dealt with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s role in the scandal and he questioned the method by which the administration has revealed to the American people what happened on September 11, 2012 in Benghazi.
Thomas said that some think that because Clinton was not sworn in by the Senate or the House makes the case for the need for a select committee that doesn’t make any mistakes on the seriousness of investigating the attack in Benghazi.
“You can’t lie to Congress whether you’re sworn in or not,” Gowdy said bluntly. “I know that some committees do swear in witnesses and some do not, but the reality is that you can’t lie to Congress whether you’re sworn in or not.”
Gowdy went on to say that some committees don’t like the custom of swearing in former members. Hillary Clinton would fall under that custom as a former member of the United States Senate.
However, “It doesn’t impact your ability, not with respect to her, but with respect to anyone, to say you did not… you were not honest with the committee of Congress,” the South Carolina representative stated.
“I’ve never been on a committee that had the opportunity to question her,” he added. “I’ve watched the questioning and I would like the chance to ask her some questions and hopefully I will get that chance at some point.”
Gowdy said the ARB (Accountability Review Board) report had been labeled “the final say so on Benghazi,” but added that it was a “befuddling, if not mind numbing omission,” since Clinton was never interviewed for the report.
“If you want to know what happened in Benghazi I would think that you would talk to everyone who might potentially have firsthand knowledge,” Gowdy said. “If 10 people watch a car wreck why would you talk to three?”
Gowdy, like many of us wonders why the ARB didn’t question her, since she was the head of the State Department.
“The Accountability Review Board, at least in my judgment, was calculated to insulate the State Department, not to tell us what happened in Benghazi,” he continued.
This is why Raymond Maxwell, a former official at the State Department who placed on forced administrative leave after the ARB report was released, believes that Hillary Clinton and her staff were the ones spearheading the review, not an independent board.
Gowdy expressed confidence in Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to find out all the “relevant” factors about what happened in Benghazi. He also said it didn’t have to be a committee hearing that was used to get the information. Depositions can also be taken to get the truth.
In fact, rather than have questioning for five minutes at a time, Gowdy said “Depositions where you can go for hours and hours and hours is more calculated to get the full story out.”
Rep. Gowdy said that he didn’t know how you would have a credible report if you failed to investigate all those who had information on Benghazi before, during or after September 11, 2012.
According to Gowdy, Issa has confidence in his committee and he asks their input in the best way to approach the Benghazi issue and the best way to get the facts out. Gowdy believes that depositions are the best way to do that. “That’s the way we do it in litigation,” he said.
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