Via the Daily Caller, the five most essential, damning minutes from today’s hearing. And Jordan does an expert job framing them. The money line, when Hicks is asked whether he’d ever been told before not to meet with a congressional delegation: “Never.”

I won’t slow you down with further comment. None is needed — except this: Cheryl Mills is no run-of-the-mill State Department apparatchik, even among the top tier. She’s been one of the Clintons’ right-hand men for decades. She worked in Bill’s White House legal office, then as counsel to Hillary’s presidential campaign, then became chief of staff at State when Hillary was appointed secretary. If she’s the right-hand man, what other conclusion is there than that Hillary’s the one who wanted Hicks to keep his mouth shut when meeting with Chaffetz?

One last point, per today’s theme of ghettoized media. As I say, these five minutes are obviously the biggest news to come out of today’s hearings (so far). Note that, then note tomorrow how many news outlets spend any time on them vis-a-vis other ancillary issues from the testimony. For instance, Politico’s lead story as of 2:45 ET is … “Benghazi hearing gets emotional.”

Update: As of 3:30 ET, Hicks just told the panel that he was “effectively demoted” after challenging State’s leadership about its handling of Benghazi. Of course he was. How else could they discredit him later?

So they demote Hicks in retaliation for his speaking the truth; next, they accuse him of #HavingAnAxeToGrind #CrazyManOutforVengeance — DepressiveBlogger69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) May 8, 2013

Note that in the clip he mentions being contacted by both Obama and Hillary afterward and congratulated on how well he’d performed during the attack.