Benghazi panel chief wants to hear from Clinton ASAP

The Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi said panel members want to speak to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “as soon as possible.”

The comments come at the end of a list of desired witnesses Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.) sent Thursday to Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the committee’s top Democrat.

{mosads}However, he does not give a timeframe for speaking with Clinton.

The 20 person list “does not purport to or begin to identify the full universe of individuals the committee expects to interview or who might have knowledge about the policies, decisions and activities related” to the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks, Gowdy said in his letter.

The interviews — set to begin Tuesday and conclude in April — show Gowdy is making good on a promise he made last week during a rancorous committee hearing, that the panel would “ratchet up” the pace.

The witness roster includes a number of high-profile Obama administration officials, including: National Security Adviser Susan Rice and her deputy, Ben Rhodes, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.

The list also includes former officials who were part of the administration at the time of the attacks, such as then-White House press secretary Jay Carney, CIA Director David Petraeus and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Cummings derided Gowdy’s witness list.

“The committee has not adopted an investigative plan, rules, or a budget, and it remains unclear what additional questions it seeks to answer,” he said in a statement. “In this case, a majority of these witnesses have already provided information to Congress through prior interviews and testimony — in some cases multiple times — during seven previous congressional investigations.”

In terms of Clinton, Gowdy wrote that he reissued a subpoena to the State Department seeking documents related to the agency’s 2013 Accountability Review Board examination into the attacks.

He also gave the department a Feb. 13 deadline for all “emails, documents and other materials … which would be needed to constructively ask questions of Secretary Clinton.”

Benghazi is a political land mine for Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Republicans have skewered her handling of the attacks and argue the security failure at the U.S. complex in Libya should bar her from the White House.

An appearance before the select committee would be Clinton’s third Capitol Hill appearance on the attacks that left four Americans dead, and it could provide fresh ammunition for Republicans just as the race for the White House begins.