WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican chairman of a United States House of Representatives committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks said on Friday that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton had failed to respond to the panel's subpoena for documents in the case.
Representative Trey Gowdy said Mrs Clinton had not provided a single new document and her lawyer told the committee a server she used for e-mails while she was the top US diplomat had been wiped clean. "We learned today, from her attorney, Secretary Clinton unilaterally decided to wipe her server clean and permanently delete all emails from her personal server," Representative Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said in a statement.
He said the committee will seek to speak to Mrs Clinton, the presumed front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, about the e-mails and the server.
Mrs Clinton, who was sharply criticised after it was revealed she used a private e-mail address while secretary of state, has said she has already given copies of all her work-related emails to the State Department.
Mrs Clinton has told the committee and the State Department that she would like all her e-mails made public as soon as possible and welcomes the opportunity to appear before the House panel, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement.
The State Department has said it has already given Rep Gowdy's committee all the relevant emails from that cache, some 300 in all, about the attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
Members of Rep Gowdy's committee say they need to see all of Mrs Clinton's e-mails, including those she did not give to the State Department, to be sure of this.
But the top Democrat on the committee, Representative Elijah Cummings, said the letter the panel received from Mrs Clinton's lawyer confirmed that Mrs Clinton had turned over all relevant e-mails.
"It is time for the Committee to stop this political charade and instead make these documents public and schedule Secretary Clinton's public testimony now," Rep Cummings said in a statement.
