Elijah Cummings said the panel “has discovered no new evidence that contradicts the core findings of the previous bipartisan and independent investigations.” | Getty Congress Clinton allies blast Republicans on Benghazi panel for dragging feet

Benghazi panel Democrats and Hillary Clinton defenders are blasting the House investigative panel for surpassing its two year anniversary and spending millions of dollars — and having very little to show for it.

The Democrats are escalating pressure on Chairman Trey Gowdy, who contends he has not been able to issue findings on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack because the Obama administration is stonewalling him.


But Democrats are crying foul, saying it appears Gowdy is eager to exact as much pain as possible for Clinton, who has been dogged by the committee’s work — including the revelation that she exclusively used a private email server during her time as secretary of state — for much of her presidential campaign.

House Benghazi ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings, Democratic leadership and a pro-Clinton group issued a series of blistering statements over the weekend and on Monday accusing Gowdy and his Republican colleagues of a sham investigation.

“This un-happy anniversary marks two years of wasted taxpayer dollars — $6.8 million, or around $8,000 every day of its existence — on a never-ending political smear campaign that House Republicans have asked us to call the House Select Committee on Benghazi,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Correct the Record, a group that defends Clinton. “[I]t was designed to politically attack Secretary Hillary Clinton. Yet, the Committee has come up empty. In 24 months, what has this committee done besides waste everyone’s time and money?”

Cummings said in a statement Sunday that the panel “has discovered no new evidence that contradicts the core findings of the previous bipartisan and independent investigations.”

“Republicans have lost any semblance of credibility as they continue to drag this out as close as they can to the election,” he said. “Republicans should release the transcripts, stop squandering taxpayer dollars, and shut down this disgraceful partisan charade before it does even more harm.”

Gowdy fired back, stating emphatically that the panel “never deviated” from its original mission “to conduct a fair and thorough investigation focused exclusively on the facts,” adding that Democrats were “consistently undermining and obstructing our work.”

“It’s quite telling they never requested a single witness or document from this administration in two years – not a single one,” he said in a statement on Sunday. “Committee Democrats were content to ignore more than 74,000 pages of new documents and the testimony of more than 75 new witnesses. They have been singularly obsessed with politics, as the public will soon learn from the redundant, rote questions they ask witnesses.”

Gowdy has repeatedly insisted that he is not targeting Clinton, and has engaged in constant bickering with Democrats on this highly partisan issue. He’s expected to release his final report this summer, and in an interview with POLITICO last week blamed the delays on the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon for slow-walking the hand-over of documents and interviews with key witnesses.

Democrats say he’s spinning.

Most recently the two sides have been warring over interview transcripts after the majority decided to withhold Democrats’ authority to keep copies. The minority had said they planned to release a few transcripts to debunk some GOP Benghazi theories, so Gowdy took control of all the copies. Democrats now have to go to the GOP office to read them.

Many of the weekend releases hitting on the two-year mark brought up House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s slip-up last fall, in which the California Republican on national television suggested the panel was aimed at hurting Clinton in the polls. Those comments unraveled months of careful Gowdy statements, which always said Clinton was not the center of his probe.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, for example, cited those comments, adding that “nearly $7 million in taxpayer money has been wasted, and no new information has been found.”

“Instead, Republicans have tried to shut Democrats out of the process and have selectively released transcripts to suit their partisan purposes,” the Maryland Democrat said on Sunday. “To politicize such a tragedy is shameful. It is long past time for this committee to be shut down."

Even Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi chimed in over the weekend: "It is deeply disappointing to see Republicans spending millions of taxpayer dollars to warp the tragic deaths of brave Americans in Benghazi to serve such blatantly political ends. I agree with Ranking Member Cummings, Republicans should release the full transcripts, end this outrageous partisan charade, and shut down the Committee."

But the committee’s report is not the only looming threat for Clinton.

The Democratic frontrunner also has the ongoing FBI investigation into her unusual email set-up to worry about, and Clinton – who has said she did not break any laws -- expressed growing impatience on the Sunday morning talk shows.

“No one has reached out to me yet, but last summer, I think last August, I made it clear I'm more than ready to talk to anybody, anytime,” Clinton said. “I hope that this is close to being wrapped up.”