Pompeo: You Received Every Blumenthal Email But None of the 600 Security Requests?
POMPEO: "Folks in Kansas don't think that is accountability. I want to do some math with you. Can I get the first chart, please. Do you know how many security requests that were in the first quarter of 2012?"
CLINTON: “For everyone or for Benghazi?"
POMPEO: "For -- I'm sorry. Yes, Madam, I relate it to Benghazi and Libya. Do you know how many there were?"
CLINTON: “No, I do know."
POMPEO: "Madam, there were just over a hundredth plus. In the second quarter, do you know how many there were?"
CLINTON: “No, I do not."
POMPEO: "There were 172-ish, it was 171, or 173--that's --; How many were there in July and August and that weekend, few days before the attacks, do you know?"
CLINTON: “There were a number of them, I know that."
POMPEO: "Yes, ma'am. 83, by our account. That's over 600 requests. You've testified here this morning that you had none of those reach your desk. Is that correct?
CLINTON: “That's correct."
POMPEO: "Madam Secretary Mr. Blumenthal wrote you 150 emails. It appears from the testimony, the materials that we have read, all of those reached your desk. Can you tell us why security request from your professionals, then man that you just testified, and which I agree, are incredibly professional and incredibly capable people trained to keep us all safe -- none of those made it to you. But a man who was a friend of yours, who had never been to Libya, didn't know much about it -- at least that's his testimony -- didn't know much about it--every one of those reports that he sent on to you that had to do with situation on the ground in Libya -- those made it to your desk. You asked for more of them. You read them. You corresponded with him, and yet the folks that work for you didn't have the same courtesy."
CLINTON: "Well, congressman, as you're aware, he's a friend of mine. He sent me information he thought might be of interest. Some of it was, some of it wasn't. Some of it I forwarded to be followed up on. The professionals and experts who reviewed it found some of it useful, some of it not. He had no official position in the government and he was not at all my adviser on Libya. He was a friend who sent me information that he thought might be in some way helpful."
POMPEO: "Madam Secretary, I have lots of friends that send me things. I never had somebody send me a couple of pieces of intelligence with the level of detail that Mr. Blumenthal sent you every week. That's a special friend."
CLINTON: “Well, it was information that had been shared with him that he forwarded on. And as someone who got the vast majority of the information that I acted on from official channels, I read a lot of articles that brought new ideas to my attention and occasionally, people including him and others would give me ideas. They all went into the same process to be evaluated."
POMPEO: "Yes, ma'am. I will tell you that the record that we received today does not reflect that. It simply doesn't. We've read emails. We have read everything that we could get our hands on. It has taken us a long time to get it and I will tell you, you just described all of this other information that you relied upon and it doesn't conform with the record that this committee has been able to establish today. I want you to take a look at this chart to the left. You will see increasing number of requests."
