Sen. Dianne Feinstein is the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. (J. Scott Applewhite, AP)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein called on Hillary Rodham Clinton to provide more details about her use of a private e-mail account to conduct government business while she was secretary of State.
“What I would like is for her to come forward and say just what the situation is,” Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Because she is the pre-eminent political figure right now. She is the leading candidate, whether it be Republican or Democrat … to be the next president. And I think she needs to step up and come out and state exactly what the situation is.”
Then-secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2011 (AP)
Clinton tweeted last week that she wants the public to see her e-mails and that she asked the State Department to release them. Clinton’s post on Twitter has been her only comment since the New York Times revealed her use of the private e-mail system.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf has said Clinton’s use of a non-governmental e-mail account was not prohibited at the time as long as Clinton kept records of her electronic communications. Clinton has turned over 55,000 pages of e-mails to the State Department, the department has said.
Feinstein’s remarks Sunday are among the strongest to date from a Democrat about the controversy.
The California senator has long been an ally of Clinton, and provided her home as a meeting place for Clinton and President Obama to iron out their differences after the bruising 2008 Democratic primaries. Feinstein also signed onto a letter with the other female Democratic senators in support of a Clinton presidential bid.
“From this point on, the silence is going to hurt her,” Feinstein said on Meet the Press.
The House Select Committee on Benghazi has about 300 pages of e-mails from Clinton and issued individual subpoenas last week to Clinton and to the State Department for the rest.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the select committee, said Sunday there are “huge gaps” as they relate to Clinton’s e-mails and his panel’s investigation of the deadly attack in 2012 on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
“There are gaps of months and months and months,” Gowdy said on CBS’ Face the Nation.
He made reference to an iconic photo of Clinton, wearing dark sunglasses and checking her BlackBerry, that was taken aboard a military transport plane as she was headed to Libya.
“We have no e-mails from that day. In fact, we have no e-mails from that trip,” Gowdy said, suggesting it’s a stretch “to believe that if you’re on your way to Libya to discuss Libyan policy that there’s not a single document that has been turned over to Congress … It’s not up to Secretary Clinton to decide what is a public record and what’s not.”
Gowdy added: “We’re not entitled to everything. I don’t want everything. I just want everything related to Libya and Benghazi.”
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