John Kerry will testify at House committee's

John Kerry will testify at House committee's Benghazi hearing

 Republican efforts to maintain pressure on Hillary Clinton over her response to the killing of the US ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi received another boost on Friday as John Kerry, Clinton's successor at the State Department, agreed to testify at a new hearing.

Kerry's decision to appear before the House oversight committee follows the reluctant appointment by minority leader Nancy Pelosi of five senior Democrats to sit on a separate select committee recently formed to conduct its own investigation into the September 2012 attack on a diplomatic compound in Libya.

Kerry, who was chair of the Senate foreign relations committee at the time of the incident and not directly involved, insisted in a letter to the Republican congressman Darrell Issa, who heads the oversight committee, that his agreement to give evidence should exempt him from also taking part in the select committee.

“We believe the secretary's appearance before the [House oversight and government reform committee] will eliminate the need for the secretary to appear a second time before the select committee,” State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday.
Republicans believe the issue has been given fresh momentum by recent State Department disclosures of email traffic with the White House around the time of the terrorist attack.

Issa wants to question Kerry on why such emails were not disclosed earlier and whether they support Republican allegations that the Obama administration deliberately misled Americans about the cause of the attack in the first few days after it, by downplaying terrorist involvement.

Issa, who had been trying to get Kerry to attend earlier, previously accused him of ducking subpoenas by citing diary clashes.
On Friday, an irritated-sounding Psaki said Kerry had a “world of diplomacy to attend to” but had now found space in his diary.
When Speaker John Boehner created the special committee a few weeks ago, he hoped it would streamline Congress’s investigation into the deadly killings, but it seems to be making the situation more complicated.

Issa and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the select committee, are now in the position of fighting over Kerry’s testimony.

Harf’s assessment of the situation hits at the heart of what Boehner was trying to avoid. Boehner wanted the special committee to serve as the nucleus for Congress’s investigation into the attack. Previously, the oversight, Armed Services, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees all had their own investigations.

What happens from here is unclear. Issa is not known for backing down. A spokesman for the House Oversight Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Benghazi panel hasn’t hired a full slate of aides.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, said, “We’re glad Secretary Kerry will appear at Oversight. Whether he will also be asked appear before the Select Committee will be a decision for Chairman Gowdy in the future.”