Blumenthal, pictured here in 1998, was not employed at the State Department when he drafted the Libya memos. Blumenthal will testify June 16 before Benghazi panel

A key ally of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi this month.

The Benghazi panel announced Friday that Sidney Blumenthal will appear before the committee on June 16 to answer questions about memos he drafted on Libya when Clinton ran the State Department.


The interview will be closed to the public.

“This appearance before the Select Committee on Benghazi involves a witness deposition, which is typically done in private,” according to an advisory from the committee. “The session will be closed to the media.”

Blumenthal came to the attention of Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the Benghazi panel, after the committee was given thousands of pages of documents from Clinton’s tenure that showed Blumenthal and the secretary traded frequent emails on the security and diplomatic environments in Libya before and after the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks.

Blumenthal — an adviser to former President Bill Clinton — was not employed at the State Department when he drafted the Libya memos. But he was being paid by the Clinton Foundation at the time.

Hillary Clinton had wanted to bring Blumenthal aboard at the State Department when President Barack Obama tapped her as secretary, but his nomination was blocked because Obama’s advisers distrusted the longtime Clinton confidante.

Instead, Bill Clinton helped secure Blumenthal a $10,000-a-month job at the Clinton Foundation. Blumenthal also had a number of business interests in Libya and he advised companies seeking contracts in the country.

Those connections have caused Republicans to question the independence of the advice he provided Clinton as Libya was wracked by violence in 2012.

Emails released by the State Department last month showed that Blumenthal was a prolific correspondent with Clinton. The two traded emails on Libya as well as on more informal matters like dinner invitations.

Many of Blumenthal’s emails were based on unnamed sources he claimed were deeply involved in the Libyan and European governments. His analysis of Libya was often met with skepticism by senior State Department staff when Clinton forwarded them to aides like Jake Sullivan.

Gowdy has said he wants to interview Blumenthal to better understand how seriously Clinton’s State Department took his advice.