The investigation by the House Select Committee on Benghazi could end up costing more than $6 million if the probe continues to move at a “glacial” pace, according to the panel’s top Democrat.
“For those keeping track, the committee has spent more than a year and more than $3 million trying to find evidence to damage [Hillary Clinton] and her presidential campaign, even as it continues to come up empty-handed,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.) wrote Friday in a Washington Post op-ed.
{mosads}He said the panel’s investigation has lasted longer than other high-profile congressional probes, including the one that reviewed the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
“At this glacial pace, the Benghazi investigation will last longer than the Watergate investigation and the 9/11 Commission, and it will squander more than $6 million in taxpayer funds,” Cummings wrote.
Cummings and other Benghazi panel Democrats have unveiled a spending tracker to keep track of the select committee’s price tag.
The op-ed was published the day after the House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill that withholds certain funding from the State Department until the agency complies with the ongoing investigation into the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, which occurred when Clinton was secretary of State.
Cummings said the GOP-controlled panel “should stop blaming others for its own delays.”
“The committee has not held a single hearing in 19 weeks, despite the chairman’s assertion that there would be public hearings on a monthly basis,” he wrote. “It refuses to set a date for Clinton’s testimony, although she has been willing to appear since last year.”
He criticized the panel’s subpoena for Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal to be deposed, and noted that seven congressional investigations have already been conducted into the deadly siege that killed four Americans.
“This slow-walked and abusive political charade on the taxpayers’ dime is exactly the opposite of what we promised the families of those who were killed in Benghazi,” Cummings said.
“If there is any minuscule chance left to salvage the Benghazi committee’s place in history, we need to return immediately to our core mission of implementing concrete reforms designed to help protect our diplomatic corps around the world.”