Hillary Clinton's aides locked horns with the Republican-led House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks over when and how Clinton would testify.
Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton, said Saturday that she would testify in a public session on Oct. 22 before lawmakers examining the deaths of four Americans in the 2012 attacks in Libya, according to CNS News.
This was refuted by the committee's spokesman, who issued a statement asserting that Clinton's lawyer, David Kendall, had stipulated that acceptance of the October date would depend on the committee's agreeing to question Clinton only about the Benghazi attacks, not about her private email account, and on a commitment that the date of the hearing would not change, reports US News.
"Secretary Clinton's campaign may want to reach out to her lawyer. As of last night, Mr. Kendall was still negotiating conditions for her appearance,' Jamal Ware said, according to New York Times.
Merril, responded with a second statement disputing this. "We have made clear that we understand emails are in their jurisdiction. So unless the committee now believes emails are no longer in its jurisdiction, we are in agreement," he said, as reported by the New York Times.
By the end of the day it was not clear what exactly both sides were arguing over.
During the course of its investigation the Benghazi committee had discovered that Clinton had used her personal email account for State Department business. Clinton's testimony is expected to have wide-ranging repercussions on her presidential bid.
While campaigning in Iowa on Saturday, Clinton was asked about the email issue. "I think there's so much confusion around this that I understand why reporters and the public are asking questions, but the facts are pretty clear. I did not send nor receive anything that was classified at the time," she told reporters, according to The Associated Press, as reported in the New York Times.
