A new report from The New York Times suggests that during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, she may have helped push the United States into an illegal war in Libya based on advice received from a Clinton Foundation staffer who stood to make money from the ousting of then-Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi.
Now, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., head of the committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, plans to subpoena the staffer, Sidney Blumenthal, 66, to conduct a private transcribed interview to determine the motives behind the informal intelligence reports he provided to Clinton while she was at the State Department.
The Times reports that Clinton took his advice seriously and circulated it among State Department staff who were often skeptical of Blumenthal. It's interesting to note that Blumenthal was barred from a State Department job by the Obama administration, partially due to his attempts to discredit Obama's character during the 2008 Democratic primaries.
Blumenthal has long served as a high-level Clinton aide in some form, acting as speechwriter and in-house intellectual for former President Bill Clinton, and also as a senior advisor for Hillary's 2008 presidential bid. More recently, he worked at the Clinton family's charitable organization, where he helped with research and "message guidance," the Times reported.
According to emails obtained from the Times, leading up to the U.S. intervention of Libya, Blumenthal continued to advise Hillary on Libya from his position at the Clinton Foundation. The Times reports: "Mr. Blumenthal's involvement was more wide-ranging and more complicated than previously known, embodying the blurry lines between business, politics and philanthropy that have enriched and vexed the Clintons and their inner circle for years."
Much of that advise Blumenthal passed on to Clinton reportedly came from a "group of business associates he was advising as they sought to win contracts from the Libyan transitional government," reports the Times. The group involved "other Clinton friends, a private military contractor and one former CIA spy seeking to get in on the ground floor of the new Libyan economy." The projects, which weren't successful, would have required State Department permits.
While it's not clear whether Clinton or the State Department knew of Blumenthal's business interests in Libya, Rep. Gowdy wants to find out who, if anyone, was "paying him to prepare the memos for Mrs. Clinton and whether they were among his responsibilities at the Clinton Foundation." Gowdy is also interested in "whether the planned business venture in Libya posed any potential conflicts for Mr. Blumenthal or Mrs. Clinton, whose aides the business partners sought meetings with in early 2012," according to the Times.
From 2011 to 2012, Blumenthal sent at least 25 memos about Libya to Clinton, "many describing elaborate intrigues among various foreign governments and rebel factions."
The Times continues: "Mrs. Clinton circulated them, frequently forwarding them to Jake Sullivan, her well-regarded deputy chief of staff, and requesting that he distribute them to other State Department officials. Mr. Sullivan often sent the memos to senior officials in Libya, including the ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the 2012 attacks in Benghazi. In many cases, Mr. Sullivan would paste the text from the memos into an email and tell the other State Department officials that they had come from an anonymous 'contact' of Mrs. Clinton."
Some of the exchanges between Clinton and Blumenthal appear to involve a second, secret private email address used by Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state. Clinton previously said she exclusively used only one private email address to conduct business while at the department.
"Fyi. The idea of using a private security experts to arm the opposition should be considered," Clinton wrote to Blumenthal from the email address HRod17@clintonemail.com regarding strategies to help the NATO-backed rebels oust Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.
Blumenthal suggested in another email that the new Libyan leader, Mohamed Magariaf, would "seek a discrete relationship with Israel" and had "many common friends and associates with the leaders of Israel." Clinton responded to Sullivan, "If true, this is encouraging. Should consider passing to Israelis."
The Times reports that some of the Libya intelligence Blumenthal sent to Clinton "urged Clinton to consider rumors that other American diplomats knew at the time to be false. Not infrequently, Mrs. Clinton's subordinates replied to the memos with polite skepticism."
One memo was sent to Clinton hours after the Benghazi attack, advising Clinton that "the attacks on that day were inspired by what many devout Libyans viewed as a sacrilegious Internet video on the prophet Mohammed originating in America," according to the Times.
However, the conservative activist group Judicial Watch obtained new documents on Monday which reveal, via a preliminary intelligence report, that the Benghazi attack was actually planned ten days in advance "to kill as many Americans as possible," rather than being a spontaneous reaction to an American-made religious video, reports The Hill.
The Times concludes, saying Blumenthal's direct line to Clinton "circumvented the elaborate procedures established by the federal government to ensure that high-level officials are provided with vetted assessments of available intelligence."
