Newly released federal court documents reveal details about President Obama's call to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the night of the 2012 Benghazi attack - though most is redacted - and the ensuing strategy to mislead the American people about the cause of the attack.
Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the records in June 2014, followed by a lawsuit in September.
While it had already been disclosed that Obama and Clinton spoke the night of the attack in Libya, the timing of the call was unknown. The new State Department documents show that the call was placed after the initial attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound but before the second mortar attack on the nearby CIA building which killed former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Ty Woods, according to Judicial Watch.
The State Department redacted most of the contents of the call because the administration says they concern internal deliberations about the Benghazi attack, reports Fox News. Only Obama's and Clinton's closest aides were privy to the contents.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes emailed State Department officials Jake Sullivan and Philippe Reines and National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan regarding Obama's call to Clinton.
Bearing the subjecting line, "Call," the text of the email says, "Fyi - we are considering releasing this tonight," followed by what appears to be a single redacted sentence. The next paragraph says, "Readout of President's Call to Secretary Clinton," but the following sentences are also redacted, with the "B5" exception listed, meaning internal deliberations.
Before the Sept. 11 attack ended, Rhodes had endorsed Clinton's statement that suggested that the assault was a spontaneous response to an inflammatory anti-Islam video posted on the Internet.
Rhodes told senior White House and Clinton aides in an email sent at 9:48 p.m., "We should let the State Department statement be our comment for the night."
Meehan then emailed officials at 10:15 p.m., further confirming the White House's approval of Clinton's statement linking the terrorist attack to an Internet video. "All, the Department of State just released the following statement. Per Ben [Rhodes'] email below, this should be the [U.S. government] comment for the night."
The next day, Meehan sent an email to State Department and National Security Council officials advising that Rhodes would hold a conference call that morning "to ensure we are all in sync on messaging for the rest of the day."
Fox News later reported that there were never any demonstrations on the ground outside the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, directly challenging the administration's claims that protests over an anti-Islam video led to the attack. "There was no protest and the attacks were not spontaneous," an anonymous source told Fox, adding that the attack "was planned and had nothing to do with the movie."
That source was corroborated by a report from McClatchy which also confirmed that there were no protests before the Benghazi attack.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued a statement regarding the newly acquired emails: "These documents show the Obama White House was behind the big lie, first promoted by Hillary Clinton, that an Internet video caused the Benghazi terrorist attack."
"Top White House aide Ben Rhodes, Hillary Clinton, and many key Obama officials pushed others to tie the Internet video to the attacks," Fitton continued. "It is disturbing that the Obama administration would use Islamist radicals to push the false Benghazi story in a way that would abridge free speech. It is little wonder that Mrs. Clinton and the entire Obama administration have fought so hard to keep these documents from the American people. All evidence now points to Hillary Clinton, with the approval of the White House, as being the source of the Internet video lie."
