The Republican head of the Benghazi Select Committee warned Tuesday that no witnesses would be off limits in its upcoming probe and that he would consider going to court, if necessary, to compel testimony.
“I can’t skip over a witness that I think we ought to talk to simply because there is an assertion of either privilege or immunity,” Chairman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina told Fox News in an exclusive interview.
He said that while he has received good cooperation to date, and the issue had not yet arisen, “if you mean to say that ‘not only can they not talk, they don’t have to come,’ you have to litigate that.”
Gowdy said the investigation will be driven by facts, characterizing as strongly bipartisan his work with the committee’s ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, to review documents and identify witnesses.
He also said he anticipates the first public hearing will be held in September and will focus on the State Department investigation into the 2012 attack and whether its recommendations have been implemented.
Asked whether he wants Hillary Clinton to testify, Gowdy said, “I want everyone who has access to relevant information, and it is, I think, impossible to argue that the secretary of State at the time would not have access to relevant information…”
Gowdy said he was not trying to single out any particular witness. He insisted he was just as interested in the former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morell, who was accused of misleading Congress over the flawed “talking points” that blamed a protest for the assault, as he was in the unnamed CIA public information officer who made a significant edit of the points.
“Either talk to all of them,” Gowdy said, “Or concede you are not interested in getting all the facts.”
Gowdy also said he hoped former CIA Director David Petraeus, who remains under FBI investigation nearly two years after he resigned, would participate voluntarily.
“This is going to be serious, fact-centric. There are not going to be leaks. There are not going to be selective releases,” he said. “Hopefully, if the investigation is still ongoing, he (Petraeus) may conclude, he has an absolute right to conclude, that he is still going to participate.”
Asked if the scope would extend to other current and former government and Congressional figures, including presidential adviser Ben Rhodes, former UN ambassador Susan Rice, and D.C.consulting group Beacon Global Strategies, Gowdy replied, “how can I run an investigation and at the end say that it was thorough and complete and fact-centric and fair if I began to rule out people that we’re going to talk to?”
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