Emails show Blumenthal helped shape Benghazi narrative
A batch of State Department emails between Hillary Clinton and her aides on their handling of the 2012 Benghazi terror attack reveals that Sidney Blumenthal, a Clinton Foundation official, wielded significant influence over Clinton when she led the department, and over how the department would react to the Benghazi attack.
The New York Times published more than 300 pages of emails Thursday, ahead of the State Department's planned release of hundreds of additional pages in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
According to those emails, Blumenthal peppered the secretary with dozens of Libyan intelligence memos in the months before terrorists raided the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11.
Stevens was among the regular recipients of reports from Blumenthal, who was described as Clinton's "contact."
Blumenthal sent a barrage of intelligence to Clinton the day after the Benghazi attack in September that appeared to have been compiled with the help of Tyler Drumheller, a former CIA official.
Hours later, Clinton passed the report to Jake Sullivan, a top Clinton aide, with the instructions to "get this around asap."
One Sept. 12, 2012, memo mentioned the now-infamous YouTube clip that the administration first cited as the catalyst for the attack.
"[T]he attacks...were inspired by what many devout Libyan viewed as a sacrilegious Internet video on the prophet Mohammed originating in America," Blumenthal wrote.
Blumenthal later wrote that "the attackers, having prepared to launch their assault, took advantage of the cover provided by the demonstrations in Benghazi protesting an Internet production seen as disrespectful to the prophet Mohammed."
In a subsequent email, Blumenthal noted "the attacks on the U.S. missions were as much a result of the atmosphere" in Libya at the time "as the controversial internet video."
The longtime Clinton loyalist sent Clinton an article from Salon Magazine on Oct. 1, 2012, that suggested Republicans might attempt to use the Benghazi attack as campaign fodder against President Obama.
"Be sure Ben knows they need to be ready for this line of attack," Clinton told Sullivan in response to the article.
Clinton was likely referring to Ben Rhodes, the White House's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, who wrote Susan Rice's widely criticized response to the attacks in television interviews days after the attack.
Rhodes stressed the importance of Rice's need to "underscore that these protests are rooted in the Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy," according to an email obtained by Judicial Watch last year.
State Department officials are expected to release additional emails in the coming days, though they have not specified when.
Clinton had attempted to include Blumenthal on her State Department staff in 2009 before the Obama administration blocked him from the agency. That didn't stop him from lending his expertise to the secretary, the emails indicate.
The Democratic operative's ties to the Clintons date back to 1997, when President Bill Clinton first hired Blumenthal as an assistant.
Sullivan, a top Clinton aide, often circulated Blumenthal's memos to top State Department officials after information that could have identified Blumenthal as their author was stripped from the reports.
In a memo to Clinton sent Aug. 23, 2012, Blumenthal stressed the importance of "Libya providing the funding for new projects," and suggested newly-elected leaders in the country "will welcome investment and cooperation" from American companies and banks.
Clinton called that information "very interesting."
The exchange raises new questions about the motives behind Blumenthal's reporting given his ties to a group of businessmen who were attempting to secure State Department permits so they could invest in the transitional economy.
Gene Cretz, Stevens' immediate predecessor as ambassador to Libya, called an April 2012 report from Blumenthal "a bit odd." He noted that Clinton's "source" had confused two Libyan figures with similar names.
"Let me try to untangle this and see if any of it jibes with the reality we are seeing," Cretz wrote to Sullivan.
Sullivan referred to Blumenthal as a "friend" of the secretary's in July 2012.
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