All of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails from the time period surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi attacks are vital for the ongoing investigation into the events surrounding that day, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., said Saturday.
"Even small details about who the secretary might have been communicating with, even a happy birthday note written in the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2012, it's important for our investigation to learn all of the details about what all was going on that night," the Kansas Republican told Fox News.
Story continues below video.
Pompeo, a member of the House Select Committee investigating the Benghazi attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and other diplomatic staff, further commented that if Clinton were a private citizen, she would never get away with refusing to turn over documents in response to a subpoena.
"Most importantly, a private citizen who used to be the secretary of state ... you shouldn't get away with this," he said. "These were, if not classified, often sensitive conversations."
On Friday, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said that Clinton has
wiped 'clean' a private email server that she was using for all her communications, deleting all emails from it permanently.
Further, the South Carolina Republican said that Clinton has not produced any new documents in recent weeks toward the investigation, and has refused his request to turn her server over to a third party to be independently reviewed.
Clinton's attorney, David Kendall, said Gowdy was looking in the wrong place, saying investigators should look to the State Department, which is "uniquely positioned to make available any documents responsive to your requests."
Pompeo said Saturday the committee still hopes it can get access to Clinton's private server, "to make sure that all of the relevant e-mails are in the possession of the United States government."
Meanwhile, Pompeo said, the committee will continue to go down a legal path to make sure it gets all of the answers about Benghazi for the American public, including getting all of the "non-dot gov e-mails that relate to our investigation into the committee's possession,"
And if Clinton continues to refuse, Pompeo said the committee will "continue down a legal path, and we will make the case to her lawyers, to the State Department for whom she worked, and to the White House that this is something that ought to be done for the American people. We hope the House of Representatives will support this effort fully as we move down the path of trying to get access to the information our committee so desperately wants and needs."
Related stories:
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.