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House Benghazi Probe Longer than Watergate

October 03, 2015, 11:09 AM

 -- The House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks is now longer than the congressional investigation into the Watergate scandal, committee Democrats said earlier this week.

As of Monday, the House Select Committee on Benghazi has been active for 72 weeks -- surpassing the Watergate Committee's activity in the 1970's.

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Democrats have accused the committee of focusing on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rather than the 2012 Benghazi attacks.

“The Benghazi Select Committee has now become one of the longest and least active congressional investigations in history,” Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, wrote in a statement. “The Committee has squandered the last 16 months and more than 4.5 million taxpayer dollars dredging up political attacks to impact the 2016 presidential election -- a severe misuse of taxpayer funds and Congressional power."

Republicans, who point to the committee's discovery of Clinton's private email practices, say they are collecting as much information as possible on the attacks, and charge the administration with not cooperating with requests for information, and Clinton's private email use with making their investigation more costly.

"While we are heartened to have found the few Democrats concerned about federal spending, their hypocrisy, stonewalling and obsessive defense of Secretary Clinton is why the Select Committee is just now receiving documents requested more than a year ago," Committee spokesman Jamal Ware wrote in a statement.

Just last week, the State Department turned over previously undisclosed emails from Clinton's private account related to the Benghazi attack, after claiming earlier this year that it had turned over all emails pertaining to the committee's requests.

Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee in a public hearing on Oct. 22.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of the story published Sept. 28 incorrectly stated that the Benghazi Committee's investigation was the longest in congressional history.