WASHINGTON — Partisan tensions between the leaders of the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, erupted Sunday, just four days before Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to testify at a public hearing of the panel.
As the committee's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., prepared to go on television to provide his latest defense of the investigation, the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, released information undercutting one of Gowdy's recent allegations about Clinton's use of her private email when she was secretary of state.
Gowdy had claimed this month that messages sent and received by Clinton included the name of a CIA source in Libya. That information was "some of the most protected information in our intelligence community," Gowdy said. The fact that Clinton sent and received these materials, he said, debunked her "claim that she never sent any classified information from her private email address."
But Cummings said Sunday that the CIA had informed the committee that information about the source was not classified.
"Unfortunately, the standard operating procedure of this select committee has become to put out information publicly that is inaccurate and out of context in order to attack Secretary Clinton for political reasons," Cummings said in a letter to Gowdy. "These repeated actions bring discredit on this investigation and undermine the integrity of the select committee and the House of Representatives."
Three hours after Cummings released his letter, Gowdy responded, saying Cummings had mischaracterized what the CIA told the committee. The name of the source had been redacted from the email by the Obama administration, Gowdy said in a letter of his own, and "the fact that the CIA says it didn't do it does not mean the material was not sensitive or classified."
"As usual, I would ask you to completely and accurately relate the facts rather than attempt to create an impression that is misleading based on an incomplete and selective recitation of the facts," Gowdy said.
At the end of the letter, Gowdy criticized the Obama administration, which he has contended has refused to hand over documents he has requested.
"I am envious of your staff's ability to get information from this administration in less than 45 minutes on a weekend," Gowdy said. "This is something the majority members struggle to do on weekdays. Perhaps you would be willing to help us gain access to the information the committee has been seeking from the administration for over half a year now."
Gowdy and Cummings continued their argument in separate appearances on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Gowdy tried to push back on the mounting criticism of the committee for using the Benghazi attacks as a way to undermine Clinton's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Gowdy said the committee was focused on the Benghazi attacks, not Clinton or her personal email account.
And he sharply criticized two members of his own party — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Rep. Richard Hanna of New York — for their recent statements that the committee had succeeded in its purpose of weakening Clinton's campaign.
"I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends: Shut up talking about things that you don't know anything about," Gowdy said. "And unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we have done, why we have done it and what new facts we have found."
Appearing after Gowdy, Cummings disputed Gowdy's contention that the committee had always been focused on the attacks on U.S. government outposts in Benghazi. Four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, were killed in the attacks.
"And I do believe that what he has tried to do — I listened to him very carefully — he's now trying to shift back to where we should have been all along," Cummings said. "That is looking at the Benghazi incident."
On NBC's "Meet the Press," two other members of the committee presented their own, diametrical views of the investigation.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., drew a comparison between Clinton's emails and Watergate. "But this is worse in some ways — right?" he said.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., said that after 17 months and $4.5 million spent on the investigation, the committee had not uncovered anything new about the Benghazi attacks.
"We have nothing new to tell the families," Schiff said. "Apart from that there was a private email server. That doesn't tell us anything about Benghazi."