Boehner Reappoints Gowdy to Head Benghazi Panel

Gowdy, left, was reappointed to his Benghazi panel role as Chaffetz said he will mount further probes into the matter. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Gowdy, left, was reappointed to his Benghazi panel role as Chaffetz said he will mount further probes into the matter. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
By David Eldridge
Posted November 24, 2014 at 5:56pm

Speaker John A. Boehner announced Monday he will reappoint Rep. Trey Gowdy as chairman of the Select Committee on the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya in the 114th Congress.  

“On September 11, 2012, four Americans were killed in a brutal terrorist attack in Libya. Two years later, the American people still have far too many questions about what happened that night — and why,” Boehner said in a statement. “That’s why I will reappoint Rep. Trey Gowdy and the Republican members of the House Select Committee to investigate the events in Benghazi in the 114th Congress. I look forward to the definitive report Chairman Gowdy and the Select Committee will present to the American people.”  

Gowdy, R-S.C., told CQ Roll Call Nov. 14 that the committee, which has maintained a low profile since its creation last spring, would meet “in public and in private” before the end of December’s lame-duck session, which is currently open-ended. The bipartisan panel, created by Boehner in May, was expected to consolidate investigations into the September 2012 terror attack that have been ongoing in several House committees, including Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight and Government Reform.  

But last week, the incoming chairman of Oversight, Utah’s Jason Chaffetz, said in an interview with The Hill that he expects the committee to continue with its own probe.  

One day later, the House Intelligence Committee, chaired by retiring Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, released its own report , two years in the making, that concluded the military acted properly in responding to the 2012 attack and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees.