When Hillary Clinton took office as Secretary of State in 2009 under the Obama Administration, she created a private email server to use. She used that email exclusively while Secretary. While she was in office, four Americans were killed in an attack on two American diplomatic outposts in Benghazi.
In 2014, the Benghazi hearings raised concern over whether or not poor communication between the government and the outposts was the reason for the attacks, particularly the second attack that happened one mile away just hours after the first attack.
In May of 2014, The Select House Committee on Benghazi was created by House Member, Trey Gowdy, to investigate the "policies, decisions and activities that contributed to the attacks, and bring to justice the persons involved in the issues relating to the attacks" according to the committee's government website. The committee asked Clinton to turn over her emails for investigation relating to the Benghazi attacks. She agreed to do so and the State Department turned over 30,000 emails that were sent during her time as secretary.
Hilary Clinton’s private use of an email server seemed to be the main focus for The Select House Committee on Benghazi, and Chairman Trey Gowdy was accused of using the committee solely as a way to damage Mrs. Clinton’s political future. The committee investigated the emails for 17 months and cost almost $4 million in government funds. Chairman Gowdy was asked to create a separate select committee that focused on Clinton's emails exclusively but would have been accused of a political witch hunt if done so.
The investigation found classified emails that were sent from Clinton's private email during the time of the attack and the committee turned this evidence over to the Justice Department and the FBI opened an investigation shortly after. After a yearlong FBI investigation, the FBI found no evidence of wrongdoing by Mrs. Clinton relating to the attacks on Benghazi and her private email server.
Clinton was criticized by FBI Director, James Comey, in his statement regarding no criminal charges be made, claiming Mrs. Clinton was “extremely careless” and showed poor judgement in her actions. Although no evidence shows relation to her email and the Benghazi attacks, foreign governments could have gained access to her accounts.
After much personal investigation and research, I think it is clear that the committee’s focus was not the Benghazi attacks, but Clinton’s use of private email. The committee was created to investigate the communication errors within the Benghazi attacks, but focused all its resources on Clinton’s email in order to undermine her political race for the presidency.
