On Friday, House Speaker John Boehner announced his plans to call a vote that will form a select committee that will investigate the attacks on a US consulate base in Benghazi, Libya in 2012. Along with the announcement, Boehner as accused the Obama administration of misleading the country because of the White House's withholding of emails regarding Benghazi. The New York Daily News said that the emails about the incidents at Libya only surfaced this week despite a subpoena issued in 2013.
Boehner's statement read, "This dismissiveness and evasion requires us to elevate the investigation to a new level. I intend for this select committee to have robust authority, and I will expect it to work quickly to get answers for the American people and the families of the victims. While Republicans try to gin up yet another political food fight, Senate Democrats will remain focused on fostering economic growth for all hard-working Americans."
Daily News said that although the proposal to establish a select committee would have to undergo a vote to approve it, it is most likely that the House will pass the measure as it is currently led by the Republicans. GOP senators reportedly urged Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is a Democrat, to work with Boehner on a joint House-Senate committee to investigate the attacks. However, the report said Reid was dismissive with the idea.
The call for the creation of the select committee from the US Congress reportedly came hours following the issuance of a subpoena for Secretary of State John Kerry to testify on the deadly attacks by Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Representative Darrell Issa. Issa expressed his desire for Kerry to appear before his committee on May 21 to answer questions on why the emails obtained by conservative watchdog Judicial Watch this week were not included from the Benghazi-related documents that were acquired through a subpoena on August last year.
In his letter to Kerry, Issa said, "The fact that these documents were withheld from Congress for more than 19 months is alarming. The Department is not entitled to delay responsive materials because it is embarrassing."
