Boehner Will Establish A Select Committee To Investigate Benghazi

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio is surrounded by reporters as he returns to the Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014, following a meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Update: 12:20 P.M. EST

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) intends to form a select committee to investigate the 2012 Benghazi attacks, he announced Friday.

“[T]he House will vote to establish a new select committee to investigate the attack, provide the necessary accountability, and ensure justice is finally served,” the Speaker said in a statement.

The move was prompted by a recently-unearthed White House internal email at the time about how to discuss the issue. The email didn’t contain evidence of a cover-up but for Republicans — who insist then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did something wrong — the issue has become a cause célèbre.

Boehner added: “The administration’s withholding of documents – emails showing greater White House involvement in misleading the American people – is a flagrant violation of trust and undermines the basic principles of oversight upon which our system of government is built. And it forces us to ask the question, what else about Benghazi is the Obama administration still hiding from the American people?”

The panel may be led by second-term Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), said a senior House Republican leadership aide, who said the recent emails were “the straw that broke the camel’s back” for Boehner.

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