“It’s time to bring this taxpayer-funded fishing expedition to an end," said Ranking Member Elijah Cummings. | Getty Dems tee off on Benghazi panel

Three days out from Hillary Clinton’s high-stakes appearance before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, panel Democrats released excerpts from closed-door committee interviews they said showed there was “no evidence” substantiating “wild Republican conspiracy theories” about Clinton's response to the Benghazi attacks.

The 124-page report concludes that investigators thus far have found no evidence over the course of 54 transcribed interviews that suggests the former Secretary of State had specifically ordered the military to stand down on the night of the deadly attack, or “personally” directed State’s reduction of security in Benghazi beforehand.


While Democrats have for months blasted the GOP-led panel as a political operation aimed at hurting Clinton in the polls, releasing excerpts from private interviews conducted over the past several months is an escalation of their attack on the panel. It's the first time either party has publicly released large sections of the closed-door testimony. And it could put more pressure on Republicans ahead of Clinton's Thursday testimony.

“This report shows that no witnesses we interviewed substantiated these wild Republican conspiracy theories about Secretary Clinton and Benghazi,” said Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), referring to allegations many Republicans have made in recent years following the attacks. “It’s time to bring this taxpayer-funded fishing expedition to an end.”

Republicans on the panel waived off the report as an attempt by Democrats to protect Clinton. The committee has said it’s not focused on Clinton per se and that it's waiting until investigators wrap up all their interviews before issuing a final report.

“Why is every single bullet point in the Democrats’ press release about Clinton and not a single one about the four people who were killed or about providing better security in the future?” Jamal Ware said in a statement. “This is further proof of the Democrats’ obsession with covering for Hillary Clinton instead of investigating the Benghazi terrorist attacks.”

The Democrats' report reiterates their allegation that the panel is a partisan instrument, recounting the now infamous brag by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy that the panel has hurt Clinton in the polls and also citing the number of hearings that have focused on the State Department, as opposed to the military or intelligence community.

According to the report, Democratic investigators “developed a set of standard questions based on some of the most prominent Republican accusations against Secretary Clinton over the past three years” and posed them to each witness.

Their report also says they've found no suggestions that Clinton or other U.S. officials authorized the transfer of weapons, “pressed the United States into supporting the United Nations campaign in Libya under false pretenses," or “oversaw an operation at the State Department to destroy or scrub embarrassing documents.”