Clinton aide testifies as Democrats slam Benghazi panel

Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaks to the media after testifying at a closed-door hearing of the House Benghazi Committee, on Capitol Hill, Friday, Oct. 16, 2015 in Washington. Abedin, committee staff and a few lawmakers met behind closed doors for several hours Friday at a session focused on the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. AP Photo

WASHINGTON, United States—Hillary Clinton’s long-time confidante testified Friday before US lawmakers investigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Libya, as Democrats slammed the Republican-led actions as efforts to “derail” the ex-secretary of state’s White House bid.

READ: Top Hillary Clinton aide testifies before Benghazi panel

Huma Abedin, trusted advisor to Clinton during her State Department years and now a vice chairwoman of her presidential campaign, spent seven hours in a closed-door session of the House Committee on Benghazi.

READ: Clinton takes responsibility for handling of Libya attack

Members said their questions were related to the attacks of September 11, 2012 that killed four Americans, including ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

The panel’s chairman, Trey Gowdy, did not attend.

Abedin has been publicly quiet on the investigation, but she broke her silence by briefly speaking to reporters after testifying.

“I wanted to honor the service of those lost and injured in the Benghazi attacks,” Abedin said.

“I appreciated the time of the members and committee staff today and I answered all their questions to the best of my ability.”

The special investigation faces fresh scrutiny 17 months after it was empanelled, with Democrats charging it is more interested in ruining Clinton’s campaign than reaching conclusions about how the executive branch handled the attack and its aftermath.

Top Democrat Elijah Cummings questioned why Republicans demanded Abedin testify when “she had no policy responsibilities, no operational responsibilities, (and) was not with secretary Clinton on the night of this phenomenal tragedy.”

‘Entirely cooperative’

Republicans have also expressed concern with the panel.

Number two House Republican Kevin McCarthy inadvertently suggested last month that hurting Clinton’s presidential campaign was an unstated committee goal.

This week another congressional Republican, Richard Hanna, admitted the probe was designed in part to “go after” Clinton, who testifies before the committee next Thursday.

When House Majority Leader McCarthy says “that this is all about a taxpayer-funded political effort to derail the campaign of Hillary Clinton, ladies and gentlemen that is a problem,” Cummings said.

Clinton aides noted Abedin has been “entirely cooperative,” but they too were questioning the rationale for grilling her.

“The committee’s focus on Huma (as opposed to numerous intelligence and defense community officials still outstanding) is additional evidence that the actual attack in Benghazi, and its lessons about how we might better protect diplomats serving in dangerous places, are the last things on the committee’s mind,” Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement.

Cummings told MSNBC that the questioning of Abedin “was overall fair,” but he described the process as a “spectacle.”

Clinton’s Republican critics accuse the Obama administration of not doing enough to provide security for the Benghazi mission in the months leading up to the violence, and then of failing to adequately respond to the attack.

Republican committee member Mike Pompeo defended questioning Abedin, saying she had been “privy to and had access to information that pertained to all of the things surrounding the events of Benghazi.”

He also insisted the committee will not bow to Democratic demands to end the investigation that has already gone on longer than the 1970s Watergate probe.

“This investigation will go,” Pompeo said. “We have a task, we are going to complete it.”