Chaffetz: No excuse for sparing Clinton in Benghazi attack audit

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said that an independent audit
of last year’s Benghazi attack should have interviewed Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, even though the previous 11 similar probes did not talk with
the acting secretary.

Benghazi is different, Chaffetz said.

Chaffetz’s comments pushed back against a State Department inspector
general report released this week that found no evidence of bias in last
year’s audit, contradicting Republican allegations that it was set up to
protect Clinton.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have criticized
the Accountability Review Board’s (ARB) investigation of the State Department’s
handling of Benghazi for not interviewing Clinton, and they charge that the
board was stacked with Clinton allies.

{mosads}The inspector general report, however, said the process
operated “independently and without bias.” The report reviewed all 12 Accountability
Review Boards convened from 1998 to 2012 and found the acting secretary of
State was never interviewed.

Chaffetz, who chairs the House Oversight National Security
subcommittee, told reporters Thursday that the previous audits do not excuse
the Benghazi review’s decision not to speak with Clinton.

“She claimed full responsibility, she was making calls that
night into Libya — of course she was involved,” Chaffetz said. “If you’re going
to get a full picture you should talk to everybody that was involved.”

Chaffetz argued that the Benghazi attack was a different
scenario than previous attacks that were audited because Benghazi was a
multi-part assault that occurred over the course of many hours.

“That is different than one quick bombing,” he said. “When
you have the secretary of State personally involved and engaged that night,
then I think it’s appropriate to find out what she did and how she dealt with
it.”

The heads of the ARB review, retired Ambassador Thomas
Pickering and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, testified before
Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) Oversight panel last week.

Democrats charge that Republicans’ Benghazi investigation is
politically motivated to go after Clinton ahead of a potential 2016 presidential
run.