Secretary Kerry Subpoenaed to Appear Before Oversight Committee

WASHINGTON – Today, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., announced the issuance of a subpoena for testimony to Secretary of State John Kerry. The subpoena requires Secretary Kerry to appear before the Committee to answer questions at a public hearing on May 21, 2014.

“The State Department’s response to the congressional investigation of the Benghazi attack has shown a disturbing disregard for the Department’s legal obligations to Congress,” Chairman Issa writes in a letter to Secretary Kerry accompanying the subpoena. “Compliance with a subpoena for documents is not a game. Because your Department is failing to meet its legal obligations, I am issuing a new subpoena to compel you to appear before the Committee to answer questions about your agency’s response to the congressional investigation of the Benghazi attack.”

On April 17, 2014, the State Department sent a letter informing the Committee that it was producing previously unreleased e-mails subject to prior requests and subpoenas.  These e-mails show that White House official Ben Rhodes coordinated talking points for then-Ambassador Susan Rice which encouraged an emphasis that the attack was “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.”

“The fact that these documents were withheld from Congress for more than 19 months is alarming,” wrote Chairman Issa. “The Department is not entitled to delay responsive materials because it is embarrassing or implicates the roles and actions of senior officials.”

Yesterday, retired USAF Brig. Gen. Robert Lovell, who was in the operations control room in Germany on the night of the attacks, testified that the State Department never asked military forces to go save Americans in Benghazi during the attack.

Click here for a copy of Issa’s letter to Kerry.