Issa on outside looking in on Benghazi

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has found himself on the outside looking in with the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa hounded then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her handling of the U.S. response to a 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.

{mosads}During his tenure, which finished up at the end of 2014, Issa issued a record number of subpoenas, including multiple attempts to obtain information about Benghazi.

Yet now that Clinton is officially in the 2016 race for president, it’s Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) who is in charge of the GOP’s probe into Benghazi, not Issa.

The shift in power was highlighted on Wednesday, when Issa made headlines for being escorted out of a closed-door House Select Committee on Benghazi briefing with longtime Hillary Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal.

Some of the confrontation between Issa and Gowdy, which included a heated exchange and ended with Issa slamming a soda can into the trash before storming off, was captured on video.

It’s unclear why Issa entered the hearing room.

One of the perks of being a House member is that anyone can sit in on any committee hearing, provided he or she gets a green light from the panel’s leadership.

But parliamentary rules for closed-door depositions — such as the session with Blumenthal — are different. Those proceedings are reserved exclusively for the specific committee’s panelists.

Issa’s decision to barge into the meeting “was just a shock,” said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), a member of the Benghazi panel who was in the room during the incident.

“It’s the select committee, and nobody else is supposed to be in there,” he told The Hill.

It’s unclear whether there were any discussions before Issa’s appearance that led him to think he could attend the deposition.

On Wednesday, Issa declined to speak with The Hill off the House floor. His office also did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls inquiring about the Tuesday incident.

Westmoreland said that inside the room members were surprised by Issa’s presence and Gowdy quickly went over to the former chairman to talk to him.

He also said the Democratic staff attorney participating in the deposition objected to Issa’s presence.

Issa’s old antagonist on the Oversight panel, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), is the top Democrat on both the Oversight and Benghazi committees.

He said Issa was “not supposed to be” at the deposition.

“That’s the decision of the chairman, and I support the chairman,” he added.

Westmoreland disputed the characterization Issa was escorted out.

“It’s just the rules,” he said.

It’s not the first time Issa has sought to get involved in the Benghazi probe since the select committee was launched — while he still led the Oversight panel

In May of last year, he subpoenaed Secretary of State John Kerry on the incident, only to drop the request two weeks later.

There was also speculation Issa might consider asking GOP leaders for a waiver from committee chairmanship term limits so he could remain as leader of the Oversight Committee, though he ultimately chose not to do so.