Facing Clinton, Trey Gowdy hits back at accusations that probe is witch-hunt

By Sarah Westwood, Sarah Westwood

Published December 20, 2015

Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, addressed accusations that his panel has become a political witch hunt as he began a highly-anticipated interview of Hillary Clinton Thursday.

Gowdy said questions in the hearing would focus solely on finding "the truth about request for additional security" and "the truth about where and why our military was positioned as it was," among other things.

The South Carolina Republican promised his committee was most concerned with determining how four Americans, including Amb. Chris Stevens, were killed in an attack that was then falsely blamed on a spontaneous response to a YouTube clip.

Gowdy said Clinton's exclusive use of a private email server, which was uncovered by his committee, was only important in that it prevented the panel from obtaining a complete record of the State Department's internal communications about the attack.