House Republicans investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi and Hillary Clinton’s email practices as secretary of state said in interviews that her official entry into the presidential race won’t have any bearing on their probes.

But the political stakes of the Clinton congressional investigations are about to skyrocket. Both parties will be watching the committee’s work intently for ammo to use against Clinton or to call foul on the GOP for attempting to smear a presidential contender.


“Secretary Clinton’s decision to seek the presidency of the United States does not and will not impact the work of the committee,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi. “The Committee needs to and expects to talk with Secretary Clinton twice, as ensuring the committee has all relevant material is a condition precedent to asking specifically about Libya and Benghazi.”

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) said the committee is prepared to take criticism from Clinton allies once her campaign launches but won’t be deterred from fully probing the attacks just because she is running for president.

“I don’t think anybody is going to stop her and her camp from saying anything we do is … political. She’ll use this in her campaign,” Westmorelnd said. “It’s not political. We would have had her in a long time ago if we had her emails. This is something she has brought on herself and the State Department brought on.”

But Democrats would like nothing more than an ongoing spectacle of congressional Republicans looking like they’re tripping over themselves to go after Clinton. Avoiding such an atmosphere amid the heightened attention will be a major political challenge for Gowdy, a former U.S. attorney tapped to head the Benghazi panel and the initial investigation into Clinton’s email use.

Democrats are already accusing the South Carolina Republican of “slow-walking” his investigation to coincide with Clinton’s presidential bid.

“You knew from day one that she would appear before the committee [so it’s] interesting that they need to hear from her now that it’s the start of the 2016 election season,” said Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.). “I knew that the select committee was not going to be about the facts and the evidence. My sneaking suspicions was that it was going to be an excuse to go after Secretary Clinton.”

The former secretary of state has always been a central figure in the House GOP’s investigation of the militants who attacked a U.S. outpost in Benghazi. But Clinton’s formal jump into the presidential race will magnify every Republican move on this front. Clinton’s campaign kickoff comes just as Gowdy — who has also been informally tapped to head up the House’s initial investigation of her email use — is asking Clinton to make her first appearance before the panel. She has been asked to testify before May 1. Gowdy said Friday the committee is still working with Clinton to schedule the hearings.

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, another member of the Benghazi panel, said Gowdy is determined not to allow the committee to become a 2016 battlefield.

“Our job has everything to do with the truth and nothing to do with who may or may not be the next president of the United States,” said Jordan. “That’s our charge, that’s our mission and that’s solely what we’re about. How that impacts the presidential, that’s not even the focus of the committee.”

Republicans on the committee said the reason Clinton is being asked testify in such close proximity to her campaign announcement is because the State Department took so long to produce documents. The committee has been given access to thousands of pages of emails and evidence but is asking for more.

“This, quote, perception that some may have could have been avoided if the State Department would have given us the documents a year ago,” Jordan said. “If we would of had the documents or if the State Department or Secretary Clinton would have told us months and months and months ago that she had a separate account…this could have all been avoided.”

The committee became aware that Clinton used a private email late last summer but only discovered the extent to which Clinton kept her emails from the State Department on a private server in March.

Both sides say their general tactics won’t change with Clinton about to be an official presidential candidate; her campaign launch is expected this weekend. Republicans are still expecting the former secretary of state to appear at least twice before the panel. Gowdy invited Clinton to testify in a closed-hearing on her use of a private email and server and another public hearing on the Obama administration’s response to the Benghazi attacks.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Benghazi Committee, said he would continue to criticize Gowdy’s tactics, including holding interviews privately issuing subpoenas without consent.

“It’s been a select committee on Hillary Clinton and it will continue to be that. They ought to do what I’ve said many times, allow her to come into a public forum, a hearing, and let her testify,” the Maryland Democrat said.

Cummings added that Clinton indicated to the committee she would be willing to answer questions on her email use and the Benghazi incident during a public hearing. Clinton reportedly told Cummings last year she was prepared to testify as early as December — before her email use was made public - on the Obama administration’s response to Libya.

Gowdy has said he offered Clinton the private hearing on her emails to avoid the appearance of politicizing the committee and has repeatedly stressed that the committee is concerned only with correspondence related to Benghazi.

”Our Committee has no interest in any emails related to the Secretary’s personal, private matters nor is our Committee seeking documents unrelated to Libya and Benghazi during the relevant time periods,” Gowdy said last week. “The Committee is, however, committed to reviewing and considering every document related to the work the House of Representatives charged us with doing.”

But Sanchez said Democrats’ hands are largely tied because of the committee’s broad mandate from Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio.)

“There is not a lot we can do because…the select committee pretty much has a blank check. There is unilateral power to subpoena so there is not a lot we Democrats can do,” she said.

Still, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Democrats will still be watching closely to debunk what they see as myths about Benghazi and step in if Republicans try to turn the committee into a campaign tool.

“She’s been their target all along. In that sense, nothing has changed [because of her likely announcement] about the degree that they’ve turned the select committee into an arm of the NRCC,” he said.