WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s campaign said Saturday that she will testify Oct. 22 before the House select committee investigating her role in connection with the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya — an assertion that almost immediately was challenged by a spokesman for the committee.
Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill announced the date and said her testimony would be public.
But James Ware, a spokesman for the committee, said the timing is not set because of ongoing negotiations with Clinton’s lawyer over ground rules.
The wrangling is part of months of back-and-forth between the Republican-led committee and Clinton, whose allies accuse the panel of conducting a fishing expedition for damaging material that might be used against her as she runs for president in 2016.
U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were killed when militants overran two U.S. compounds in the restive Libyan city in September 2012, in the waning months of Clinton’s term as secretary of state.
She has claimed she had no direct role in security decisions surrounding the U.S. facilities, but Republican critics claim her State Department denied protections that might have prevented the attack.
Clinton had long offered to testify in public, but the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., initially said he preferred a private interview.
Although he said he was trying to keep the session from becoming a circus, Clinton’s team objected on grounds that a closed session could allow Republicans to selectively leak unflattering details.
Gowdy has also said he needs more documents from the State Department, which he claims has been slow to produce them, before he questions Clinton.
The committee on Saturday appeared to reject Clinton’s attorney David Kendall’s terms, which included that the scope of questioning be limited and that the hearing date, once set, would not change.
