Democrats Said to Stay on Benghazi Panel After Clinton Testimony

Democrats will stay on the U.S. House Benghazi committee, a senior Democratic aide said Friday, even though they accuse Republicans of politicizing the investigation in a partisan attempt to undermine Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy.

The five Democrats on the 12-member committee made the decision a day after Clinton’s marathon testimony before the panel. Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the special committee, on Thursday criticized what he described as an “abusive” process meant to target the Democratic frontrunner rather than investigate the deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

Clinton was the sole witness at Thursday’s hearing, and she answered questions from 10 a.m. until past 9 p.m., with breaks. Her demeanor and responses to the pointed questions from the panel’s Republican majority were widely viewed as a public- relations victory for the Democratic presidential candidate. Cummings repeatedly clashed with Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, the committee’s chairman, about whether the investigation was politically motivated.

During Thursday’s hearing with Clinton, one of the committee’s Democratic members, Adam Schiff of California, suggested that staying on the panel would prove futile.

“It’s unlikely the majority here will even consult with us on what their final report looks like,” he said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said earlier Friday that the decision was up to the Democrats on the panel to decide whether to continue.

House Republicans created Gowdy’s Benghazi committee in May 2014 to investigate the attacks, which killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Seven other congressional committees have previously investigated the incident. House Democrats have said the committee’s work has cost millions of dollars and lasted longer than the investigation of Watergate.