Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said that Hillary Clinton told Sidney Blumenthal to keep the emails to her coming and that this proves Blumenthal’s correspondence with Clinton was not “unsolicited” on Wednesday’s “America’s Newsroom” on the Fox News Channel.

Gowdy stated, “he [Blumenthal] was sending emails to Secretary Clinton far before the attack in Benghazi, all the way back to 2011. So, the whole lead-up to the attacks in Benghazi, Blumenthal was sending emails to Secretary Clinton that he never vetted, he doesn’t know anything about the sources. The memos were written by Tyler Drumheller, who may have had a financial interest. And anytime someone has a financial interest, then you need to look at the material, or their objective in the outcome, their interest in the outcome with scrutiny. She couldn’t do it and he couldn’t do it. So, how did they vet the information that was being passed on to our top diplomat?”

He added, regarding Clinton’s claims that the emails were “unsolicited,” “she and I have very different definition of the word ‘unsolicited.’ You’ll remember when she was asked, she said an old friend sent me unsolicited emails. Well, when you tell somebody to keep it coming or this is good stuff, or good work, then that tells me it wasn’t unsolicited. She flat out said ‘keep these coming.'”

Gowdy concluded, “In 2012, when he was working for the Clinton Foundation, he was planting negative stories about Mitt Romney and other Republicans. … He was emailing back and forth with Hillary Clinton about planting negative GOP stories in the throes of the 2012 presidential election.”

(h/t The Right Scoop)

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett