(Daily Caller) – South Carolina U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy said Sunday on “Face the Nation” he may by forced to call on a “recalcitrant” Secretary of State John Kerry to testify about Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Gowdy, who chairs the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said he has met privately with Kerry’s chief of staff and that their next interaction will be in a public setting.
“If I don’t get satisfaction from that public interaction with his chief of staff, the next person to come explain to Congress why he has been so recalcitrant to turn over documents will be the secretary himself,” said Gowdy.
“I want to get this investigation over with and [Kerry] is the only thing standing between me and a completed investigation,” he continued.
It was revealed earlier this week that Clinton failed to provide the State Department with 15 Libya-related emails sent between her and her longtime friend, Sidney Blumenthal. That revelation undermined Clinton’s claim that she gave all of her official emails — 55,000 pages worth — to the State Department in December.
But Gowdy says Kerry has stonewalled his investigation by refusing to turn over all the documents he needs.
“They haven’t given us emails for nine of the 10 senior aides that [Clinton] had,” Gowdy said of the State Department. “It’s been over a year, and we don’t have a single scrap of paper from nine of the 10.”
The State Department indicated again Friday that it has no plans to get to the bottom of Clinton’s private email arrangement. State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted that the agency does not know just how many other work-related emails Clinton failed to turn over, but he said that the agency has no plans to find out.
During his interview, Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said that recent revelations have “undercut the three main points” Clinton has made in defending her email set-up.
Besides saying in March that she gave all of her work-related emails to the State Department, Clinton has also claimed that Blumenthal’s emails to her were “unsolicited,” and that she used a single device — a Blackberry — to send and receive all personal and work-related emails.
“Every explanation she’s offered so far is demonstrably false,” Gowdy said.
“We know that her seminal point — ‘don’t mind my unique email arrangement, you have everything you’re supposed to have’ — we know that that is patently false,” he continued.
Emails Blumenthal turned over last week show that Clinton actively sought information from him about Libya and other nations. Records also show that Clinton used an iPad to send some emails. That despite her claim that she sent both private and work-related emails from a single account because she wanted to use only one device for “convenience.”
Gowdy said that Clinton will appear before the committee “just as soon as the Department of State decides to give me the documents that I need to have a constructive conversation with her.”
Prior to Gowdy’s Sunday appearance, John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton’s presidential campaign, sent a statement to “Face the Nation” accusing Gowdy and Republicans of “clinging to their invented scandal.”
He also asked “what if anything this has to do with Benghazi.”
WATCH:
http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/28/trey-gowdy-says-he-may-call-on-recalcitrant-john-kerry-to-testify-about-hillarys-emails-video/
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