U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering said Wednesday he offered to testify at today’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the deadly Benghazi, Libya attacks that occurred last year, contrary to what Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) claimed.
“Yes, I’m willing to testify,” Pickering told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday. “I made that clear yesterday. The White House I understand made that clear to Mr. Issa. He declined. I don’t know the reasons for that, made some statement about perhaps sometime later we could come, but I was very interested in being there, because i thought the testimony this morning might be important with respect to the accountability review board and its work.”
Pickering co-chaired an independent accountability review board on behalf of the State Department in the aftermath of the Benghazi attacks. A spokesman for Issa disputed his account, saying that committee rules prevented late additions to the witness list.
“That is 100 percent untrue,” Frederick Hill told ABC News.
“If Ambassador Pickering has reversed himself and wants to testify, we would welcome him at a future date,” Hill added.
