WASHINGTON -- A Republican-led House panel asked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton to testify in May and June on her use of private emails while secretary of state and her response to the 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic sites in Benghazi, Libya.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who leads the Select Committee on Benghazi, requested in a letter that Clinton appear before the committee to discuss the emails during the week of May 18 and to discuss the Benghazi attacks by June 18.
"Discussing Secretary Clinton's exclusive use of private email with which to conduct public business" is necessary for "discussing the facts surrounding the terrorist attacks in Benghazi," the letter from Gowdy to Clinton's attorney said.
"With her cooperation and that of the State Department and [Obama] administration, Secretary Clinton could be done with the Benghazi Committee before the Fourth of July," Gowdy said in a statement.
The investigation into the attack on the U.S. compound in which Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed has widened after the disclosure that Clinton used personal email and a private server to conduct official State Department business. Gowdy and other Republicans have questioned whether all relevant emails from her tenure have been turned over to the government.
David Kendall, Clinton's attorney, didn't immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking comment Thursday. He said Wednesday that Clinton is prepared to answer questions publicly regarding the Benghazi attacks and her email use as soon as possible.
"There is no reason to delay her appearance or to have her testify in a private interview," Kendall said in a letter to Gowdy.
Clinton was secretary of state at the time of the Libya attack, and Republicans have spent more than two years investigating whether she failed to bolster security before the assault. They also say she should share blame for the initial, erroneous account by President Barack Obama's administration of what happened in the attack.
Clinton has twice testified before Congress on the Benghazi matter, telling lawmakers in 2013 that she takes responsibility for missteps by the State Department in the months leading up to the assault. But Clinton insisted that requests for more security at the diplomatic mission in Benghazi didn't reach her desk, and reminded lawmakers that they have a responsibility to fund security-related budget requests.
The investigation's findings aren't likely to be released until next year, just months before the 2016 presidential election, a spokesman for Gowdy said this week. Clinton announced this month that she is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
Gowdy spokesman Jamal Ware said Wednesday that Gowdy wants to complete the panel's work by the end of the year but factors including witness availability, compliance with document requests and security clearances "could continue to impact the timing of the inquiry's conclusion."
House Democrats said Thursday that Gowdy's committee has operated at a "glacial pace" and that the probe is on track to take longer than investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Watergate scandal and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. They said the panel didn't seek documents from the Defense Department until April 8, or 11 months after the committee was established.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee's top Democrat, suggested the review is politically motivated.
"This appears to be a coordinated attempt by Republicans to drag out this taxpayer-funded search for anything they can use against Hillary Clinton, while their political arm raises campaign funds off the death of four Americans," Cummings said in a statement.
But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, pushed back against the suggestion that the probe was motivated by politics.
"She violated the law," said Boehner regarding Clinton. "She signed a sheet when she got there she was going to preserve all of these records."
Boehner said that "there are a lot of public documents on that server that the American people have a right to see." He said it is time for her to turn over her server and all documents to the State Department inspector general.
Pressed on whether the House would subpoena the information, he said there was no decision yet.
"If we need to do that, we may have to," he said.
Gowdy's letter included 136 sample questions about Clinton's private email server, such as why she wanted the arrangement, whether it was her idea or someone else's to use the system, and whether government funds were used to procure or plan for it.
Other questions focused on the security of the network, methods used to keep records, and whether any steps were taken to identify potential cyberthreats.
Eight questions were directly tied to Benghazi. Most of those revolved around whether Clinton was aware of efforts -- by Congress, the Benghazi Accountability Review Board or Freedom of Information Act requests -- to obtain documents related to the attacks and whether she offered to provide records to respond to such queries.
One asked whether she used email to communicate with Stevens, the ambassador who was killed.
Clinton wouldn't be the first presidential candidate to testify before a congressional committee. In April 1964, then-Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, who was vying to become the Democrats' presidential nominee, testified about school prayer before the House Judiciary Committee.
In 1948, former Vice President Henry Wallace testified before the House Foreign Affairs committee while running for president on the Progressive Party ticket. He spoke about foreign aid and defended his support for the Soviet Union, according to the U.S. Senate historian's office.
Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Miller, Billy House and Mark Halperin of Bloomberg News and by Matthew Daly of The Associated Press.
A Section on 04/24/2015