OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Clinton ally testifies on Benghazi

THE TOPLINE: The House Select Committee on Benghazi spent Tuesday interviewing one of Hillary Clinton’s former top advisers.

The GOP-controlled panel held a closed-door deposition of Sidney Blumenthal, who communicated with the then-secretary of State about the U.S. mission in Libya and the deadly 2012 siege in Benghazi.

“Given the volume and, frankly, the details of the correspondence between this witness and former Secretary Clinton it’s important for the committee to probe the depth, breadth and, frankly, the reliability of that information that he passed on,” Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) told reporters before Blumenthal’s deposition.

{mosads}The deposition comes days after Blumenthal handed over nearly 60 previously undisclosed emails between himself and Clinton to the House panel.

“Clearly, the committee should have gotten this information sooner,” Gowdy said.

But Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the panel, said there was “no smoking gun” in the new batch of memos.

“I don’t recall anything on the Benghazi attack itself,” he added.

Blumenthal himself did not speak to the media, aside from saying the tone inside the room was “civil.”

That tone may have been disrupted when Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the former House Oversight chairman who conducted his own investigation into Benghazi, attempted to crash the proceedings.

Issa marched into the closed-door deposition and remained inside for about a minute before Gowdy escorted him out.

SENATE ADVANCES DEFENSE POLICY BILL: The Senate voted 83-15 to end debate on its $612 billion defense policy bill.

Senate Democrats had been critical of the bill because of an extra $38 billion included in the Pentagon’s war fund. But are staying mum over whether they will try to block the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Tuesday’s move paves the way for a potential final vote on the bill this week, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, telling reporters he’s “very, very guardedly optimistic that we’ll get it done by Thursday.”

Before passage, lawmakers approved an amendment by McCain and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would ban the U.S. from subjecting prisoners to brutal interrogation techniques like waterboarding.

Senators also blocked a push by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to revamp how the military prosecutes sexual assault cases.

They also blocked a measure from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) that would have allowed the U.S. to directly ship arms to Kurdish security forces in Iraq.

MCCONNELL CALLS UP DEFENSE SPENDING: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) set course for the Senate to take up its defense spending bill once the NDAA is finished.

The Republican leader filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the defense spending bill, setting up a procedural vote for Thursday.

Senate Democrats say they’ll block it and other spending bills in an effort to force Republicans to make a deal to roll back budget caps.

Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday criticized McConnell for moving ahead with the defense bill, saying that Republicans are trying to pull off a budgetary “magic trick.”

DOD LEADERS TO THE HILL ON WEDNESDAY: The House Armed Services Committee will coneven Wednesday to hear from Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey about U.S. policy and strategy in the Middle East.

Expect the hearing to focus on President Obama’s recent admission that the U.S. doesn’t have a “complete strategy” to train and equip Iraqi forces in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Members are sure to grill Carter and Dempsey about the administration’s decision to deploy an additional 450 troops to Iraq to help local security forces, as well as Dempsey’s recent comments that the U.S. could open multiple “lily pad” bases throughout the country to help Iraqi soldiers.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

– Kerry ‘absolutely certain’ Assad using chlorine attacks on his people

– US, NATO warn of ‘dangerous’ Russian plan to grow nuclear arsenal

– Al Qaeda: Leader killed in US drone strike

– GOP chairman berates White House office over failure on leaks

– Push to arm Ukraine roars back in Senate