Honoring Courage, Improving Security, and Fighting the Exploitation of a Tragedy: Report of the Democratic Memebers of the Select Committee on Benghazi

On September 11, 2012, four Americans lost their lives in a deadly terrorist attack in Benghazi. Since 2014, a bipartisan Select Committee has investigated these attacks. However, the Democratic members of the Benghazi Committee contend that the committee's work has been as much of a political circus as it was a serious investigation. This is their own report. Decades in the future, historians will look back on this investigation as a case study in how not to conduct a credible investigation, the Members write. They will showcase the proliferation of Republican abuses as a chief example of what happens when politicians are allowed to use unlimited taxpayer dollars and the formidable power of Congress to attack their political foes. The Democratic report s overarching conclusion is that the evidence obtained by the Select Committee confirms the core findings already issued by many previous investigations into the attacks in Benghazi. Although the Select Committee obtained additional details that provide context and granularity, these details do not fundamentally alter the previous conclusions. The Democratic report also accuses Republicans of grave abuses during this investigation. Republicans excluded Democrats from interviews, concealed exculpatory evidence, withheld interview transcripts, leaked inaccurate information, issued unilateral subpoenas, sent armed Marshals to the home of a cooperative witness, and even conducted political fundraising by exploiting the deaths of four Americans. In our opinion, the Members write, Chairman Gowdy has been conducting this investigation like an overzealous prosecutor desperately trying to land a front-page conviction rather than a neutral judge of facts seeking to improve the security of our diplomatic corps. We are issuing our own report today because, after spending more than two years and $7 million in taxpayer funds in one of the longest and most partisan congressional investigations in history, it is long past time for the Select Committee to conclude its work, they write. Despite our repeated requests over the last several months, Republicans have refused to provide us with a draft of their report or even a basic outline making it impossible for us to provide input and obvious that we are being shut out of the process until the last possible moment. The Democratic report makes 12 recommendations. Because the fundamental goal of the Democratic Members has always been to improve the security of our diplomatic corps and Americans serving our country overseas, the report makes nine recommendations to improve security measures, security training, risk management processes, and support for survivors and their families. The report also makes recommendations for Congress to consider before establishing any future select committees.