New emails show State, White House teamed up to promote Benghazi narrative

Sarah Westwood
The Washington Examiner
6/29/2015

Newly-released emails between top aides to Hillary Clinton and President Obama reveal the extent of coordination between the State Department and the White House in the hours after a 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

The records, obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act earlier this month, indicate then-White House deputy strategic communications adviser Ben Rhodes signed off on statements from State Department officials regarding the emerging situation in Libya.

“We are holding for Rhodes clearance,” Victoria Nuland, then a State Department spokesperson, wrote of drafted press statements the evening of September 11, 2012.

Bernadette Meehan, spokesperson for the National Security Council, circulated press statements to State Department and White House staff the morning after the attack and detailed the plan to “ensure we are all in sync on messaging for the rest of the day.”…

The article continues at The Washington Examiner.

Related:   Benghazi night call between Clinton and Obama withheld, documents show  (video)

…It had previously been disclosed that Clinton and Obama spoke the night of the terror attacks. But the documents offer additional information about the timing of the call — after the initial attack on the U.S. consulate, but before the second wave where mortars hit the nearby CIA annex and killed former Navy SEALs Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.

The contents of the call, however, are being withheld, not because the information is classified but because the administration claims they represent internal deliberations about the 2012 terror assault.

The claim comes as Clinton also faces accusations that she withheld Benghazi-related emails from her private server in the trove of emails handed over to the State Department…