Benghazi panel to meet in lame-duck

The House Select Committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks announced Wednesday that it will meet again before the year is out.

The hearing on Dec. 10 will feature two State Department officials and serve as a follow-up to the panel’s inaugural September meeting on security measures surrounding American diplomats overseas.

{mosads}The lame-duck session meeting’s tone could be less restrained than the House panel’s first hearing, when Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) stressed the neutral, fact-finding nature of the committee’s mission.

Committee Republicans could look to use the hearing to chastise Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State at the time of the deadly strike in Libya.

Republicans have repeatedly attacked Clinton’s handling of the episode, with several suggesting it should prevent her from seeking the presidency in 2016.

The hearing also comes after the House Intelligence Committee released a report last month that cleared the Obama administration of GOP charges that it covered up the circumstances of the attacks and intentionally misled Congress.

Many Republicans, including Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), all of whom could run for the White House in two years, have lambasted the report, charging the panel with whitewashing its conclusions to protect the intelligence community.

They, along with other Senate Republicans, want the upper chamber to join the investigation.

Appearing next Wednesday will be Greg Starr, the assistant secretary for diplomatic security, who testified in September, along with Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general.