Blake Hall
According to the Associated Press, a House committee investigating the Benghazi, Libya, attacks that occurred on September 11, 2012 sent out subpoenas Wednesday to obtain Hillary Rodham Clinton’s personal emails from a private account she used for official business while serving as secretary of state.
Handed down from the Republican-led Select Committee on Benghazi, the subpoenas ask Clinton to hand over additional materials related to Libya. They also instructed unnamed technology companies to preserve any data relevant to the ongoing probe.
In addition to the former First Lady’s private email address – hdr22@clintonemail.com – the Associated Press also uncovered the existence of a private email server that traces back to Clinton’s home in Chappaqua, New York. This would have allowed the then-secretary “significant control over limiting access to her messaging archives”, and has put the State Department in a precarious position in fulfilling their legal responsibility to capture and – if instructed – hand over documented correspondence for the purposes of investigations, lawsuits and public requests.
In the political sphere, Democrats call the matter of the subpoenas a “fishing expedition”, and accuse the panel of “going after Clinton, period”.
Republicans deny such motives.
“It doesn’t matter if the server was in Foggy Bottom, Chappaqua or Bora Bora,” House Speaker John Boehner said. “The Benghazi Select Committee needs to see all of these emails, because the American people deserve all of the facts.”