Batch of Clinton Benghazi Emails Released; Critics Push for Independent Review

Hillary Clinton
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes part in a roundtable on May 5 in Las Vegas with young Nevadans to discuss immigration. Mike Blake/Reuters

Updated | The U.S. State Department on Friday released a batch of dozens of emails from Hillary Clinton's personal account dating to when she served as secretary of state. Much of the correspondence focuses on Libya, where four U.S. officers were killed in Benghazi in 2012. A special House committee is investigating the attack.

Clinton, the Democratic front-runner in the 2016 presidential election, has faced widespread criticism in recent months for using her personal email address to conduct business during her tenure as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. She asked the State Department to release 55,000 pages of emails that she had selected to be turned over to the government, after The New York Times in March disclosed that she had used her personal email account while serving in a government position.

The department previously said it didn't plan to release parts of the 55,000 pages of emails until next January, citing the ongoing investigation.

The emails we release today do not change the essential facts or our understanding of the events before, during, or after the attacks.

— Department of State (@StateDept) May 22, 2015

Many of the emails to Clinton contained in Friday's release were from Sidney Blumenthal, a Clinton family adviser and former aide to President Bill Clinton. When she became secretary of state, Clinton reportedly wanted to offer a job to Blumenthal, but the White House refused. In the emails, Blumenthal acted as a de facto policy adviser for Clinton, providing analysis on Libya's rapidly destabilizing political situation. In some cases, Clinton passed Blumenthal's emails to State Department staffers with instructions to circulate them.

The emails released Friday indicate that the first mention of the "fresh attacks on Benghazi" to Clinton came as a forwarded message containing a series of correspondences at 12:14 a.m. on September 12, 2012.

"Their current shelter location is now under attack by mortar fire. Three to four rounds have impacted on their location. There are new injuries to COM staff. Update to follow," an email user referred to as "DS Command Center" wrote in the first email in the message thread, which began at 11:41 p.m. on September 11, 2012.

Also of note is a correspondence between Philippe Reines, a longtime aide to Clinton, and other Clinton aides about a 2012 interview of Clinton by Wall Street Journal reporter Monica Langley. In the correspondence, Reines wrote that Langley placed her chair "as close as it went" to Clinton's chair, a move that seemed to upset Reines. "I've never seen a Westerner invade her space like that," Reines wrote.

South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy, who is chairman of the committee investigating the Benghazi attack, said in a statement released Friday afternoon that the emails were "just one piece of information that cannot be completely evaluated or fully understood without the total record," according to NPR's Tamara Keith, who posted the statement to her Twitter account. "The committee is working to collect and evaluate all of the relevant and material information necessary to evaluate the full range of issues in context," Gowdy wrote.

He added that the Benghazi committee won't reach any conclusions until the review is complete. "But these emails continue to reinforce the fact that unresolved questions and issues remain as it relates to Benghazi," Gowdy wrote. He called on Clinton to turn over her server and the entirety of her emails to a "neutral, detached, independent third party" for review.

"The best way to answer all questions related to the attacks in Benghazi," Gowdy wrote, "continues to be having access to the full public record, not a 'record' controlled, possessed and screened exclusively by Secretary Clinton's personal lawyers."

Republican House Speaker John Boehner posted to his Twitter account on Friday a reminder that the newly released emails "are self-selected."

Clinton first addressed the controversy while speaking at the United Nations on March 10, eight days after the Times first reported that she exclusively used her personal account.

A month later, on April 12, Clinton declared her intention to run for president in the 2016 election before embarking on a series of campaign stops. Since then, the Clinton Foundation, which the former secretary of state founded with her husband, the former president, has also come under scrutiny after the Times published a report last month examining the nonprofit organization's funding.

On Friday afternoon, Clinton addressed the email release during a campaign stop in New Hampshire, telling reporters that the FBI had asked for a "portion of one email be held back," but saying that "all of the information in the emails was handled appropriately."

When one of the reporters asked Clinton if she was concerned the emails were from a private service, she replied, "No," and smiled. She also said she has asked the State Department to release the emails "as soon as possible." The emails released on Friday, she said, were given to the committee months ago.

"So it's beginning," she said. "I would just like to see it expedited so we can get more of them out more quickly."

Taylor Wofford contributed reporting to this story.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer


Michele Gorman is a Newsweek political reporter, with a focus on gun policy. She previously worked at msnbc.com, where she ... Read more

To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.

Newsweek cover
  • Newsweek magazine delivered to your door
  • Newsweek Voices: Diverse audio opinions
  • Enjoy ad-free browsing on Newsweek.com
  • Comment on articles
  • Newsweek app updates on-the-go
Newsweek cover
  • Newsweek Voices: Diverse audio opinions
  • Enjoy ad-free browsing on Newsweek.com
  • Comment on articles
  • Newsweek app updates on-the-go