Friday, April 13, 2018

Advisers Urged Obama Early On To Release Comprehensive Benghazi Timeline

The White House Counsel's office advised senior Obama officials to keep quiet about the attack in Benghazi during the weeks preceding last year's November presidential election, according to two administration sources.

BuzzFeed has learned that key members of President Obama's national security team, including deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, pushed to release a comprehensive timeline of events documenting the attack that would also synthesize the views of the various government agencies into one report.

Those plans were quashed when the White House Counsel's office, which is led by Kathryn Ruemmler, advised the officials to not release any information to the public out of fear it could be used against them in any subsequent investigations and other legal complications.

The White House told BuzzFeed any suggestion that Ruemmler shot down the release of the Benghazi timeline was "Off base" - but an official said the White House would not comment "On leaks out of purported internal deliberations."

From the beginning, Obama officials at the White House have maintained that they had nothing to hide, their moves were not politically motivated, and that there was no intention of misleading the U.S. public.

A senior administration official reiterated to BuzzFeed this week that White House officials provided access to emails detailing internal administration deliberations over talking points on the Benghazi attacks to Congress for review, negating Republican claims that the White House had something to hide.

The counsel's office decision to advise against the released of a unified timeline may have seemed prudent at the time, but some White House officials feel that earlier public disclosures could have prevented the story from growing into the persistent irritant it has become in Obama's second term.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/advisers-urged-obama-early-on-to-release-comprehensive-bengh?utm_term=.rm8dA4QRX#.vc8WVDdPn

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