Former Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, second from right, with House Select Committee on Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., second from left, and ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., left, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington following her deposition before the panel investigating Benghazi. — AP WASHINGTON — A senior member of Hillary Rodham Clinton's inner circle testified Friday before a House panel investigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Libya as a nasty spat erupted between a Republican staffer and a Democratic lawmaker who insists it's time for the committee to disband. Jake Sullivan, a former policy director and deputy chief of staff under Clinton at the State Department, was questioned by the panel in a daylong session of testimony behind closed doors. Sullivan said at the close of the day that he was proud to talk about the “extraordinary service” of his former colleagues at the State Department. “I was happy to answer every question the committee had and now I'm looking forward to Labor Day weekend,” he told reporters, refusing to talk about the session further because of its closed-door nature. The panel that was established to investigate the Benghazi attacks has gotten immersed, as well, in the controversy surrounding Clinton's use of a private email server for government business during her tenure as secretary of state. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for the 2016 nomination, has been dogged by criticism about her private email use as secretary of state, and she has struggled to explain her decision. Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, the committee's chairman, said Sullivan was in a “unique position” to talk about how US policy in Libya required the State Department to have a physical presence in the country. Sullivan is currently a top policy aide on Clinton's presidential campaign. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the committee, said at midday that Sullivan had answered every question. The panel is investigating the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks at the US facilities in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens. Mike Morell, the CIA's former deputy director, likely will be the next witness to appear before the panel, Gowdy told reporters. Separately, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the panel, wrote in a New York Times op-ed that the committee had become “little more than a partisan tool to influence the presidential race, a dangerous precedent that will haunt Congress for decades.” He said the panel had let down the families of those killed in the attacks. That prompted a highly unusual and scathing attack from Jamal Ware, a spokesman for the Republican-led panel. In an email to reporters, Ware blasted Schiff, saying he had not attended enough of the panel's meetings to levy criticism, including Friday's session. Schiff was traveling from California to Washington on Friday. “You all need to ask Mr. Schiff how it is he has drawn these conclusions since he has only seen fit to attend one hour of one witness interview since the committee was constituted,” Ware said. Cummings seized on the exchange, calling Ware's comments a “bizarre, highly defensive and erratic statement overflowing with false claims.” He also questioned whether Gowdy approved the comments, which he described as an attack on a member of Congress in a “direct and offensive manner that I have never seen before.” — AP
