Cummings Issues Statement on Release of Benghazi Emails

May 15, 2013
Press Release

Washington, DC —Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued the following statement in response to the release of approximately 100 pages of emails relating to the attacks in Benghazi:

“These documents undercut the reckless accusations by Republicans that the White House scrubbed the Benghazi talking points for political reasons and in fact show just the opposite—that the primary goal was to protect the FBI’s ongoing criminal investigation and our nation’s intelligence operations.  Although Republicans have had access to these documents for months, they have distorted the truth repeatedly and falsely accused the Administration of deliberately misleading the American people.  I welcome the release of these documents, and I urge Republicans to stop trying to manufacture their own facts and to end their efforts to politicize this tragedy.”

A highly partisan staff report issued in April by House Speaker John Boehner and five Republican House Committee Chairmen stated:  “Administration officials have said that modification of the talking points was an attempt to protect classified information and an investigation by the FBI, but the evidence refutes these assertions.”  The report concluded:  “This process to alter the talking points can only be construed as a deliberate effort to mislead Congress and the American people.” 

Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa stated last week on CBS Evening News:  “Clearly, the American public was deliberately misled.”  Similarly, on Meet the Press last Sunday, Issa accused the Administration of “in fact, covering up” and “manipulating the CIA.”  He concluded:  David Petraeus said what the administration wanted him to say.”

113th Congress