Amid the chaos surrounding the establishment of a House select committee to investigate the attacks that happened in Benghazi, Libya, Yahoo News said that the Democrats are actually prepared once the probe led by Representative and outspoken Obama critic Trey Gowdy demands the release of a trove of documents and access to officials and witnesses to aid the committee with their investigation.
Earlier, the South Carolina Republican congressman has claimed that he has in his possession evidence that documented a systematic, intentional decision to keep certain documents related to the Benghazi attacks away from US Congress. Aside from Gowdy's comments, it has been observed that the GOP allegedly had taken advantage of the Benghazi affair to pommel Democrat candidates ahead of the key congressional elections in November this year.
BUt Yahoo News said the White House is confident that it would be able to emerge from the Benghazi affair as a winner, even though that they do not have the upper hand in terms of the number of members in the select committee, nor the fact that there is a risk the committee would call former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a leading presidential candidate nominee in the Democrat Party, to appear before them as a witness.
The White House would reportedly used a time-tested playbook, wherein it will call for a case-by-case assessment of document and witness requests, Yahoo News said. This means that the US government officials will be ready to comply with some of the demands while insisting to withhold or not follow those that they think will improperly delve into internal executive branch debates. This, said the news outlet, is designed to overburden West Wing staff unnecessarily.
In their separate statements, Press Secretary Jay Carney and incumbent Secretary of State John Kerry appeared to be in unison about the type of cooperation they will be exercising regarding the Benghazi probe.
Carney said on May 5, "We have always cooperated with legitimate oversight and will continue to do so. (The new Benghazi investigation is) like a conspiracy theory without a conspiracy."
Kerry said on the following day, "We have absolutely nothing to hide whatsoever. I've guaranteed that we would cooperate in every single way. We have, and I will, and the Department will. That's our obligation."
