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A bipartisan group of senators are demanding that the U.S. administration provide documents related to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U-2 spy plane in Benghazi, Libya, and its aftermath.
In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday, Sens.
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Richard Blumenthal, D, Conn., said they are “deeply troubled by the release of a classified briefing summary on the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2016.”
The briefing, which was prepared by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and obtained by Politico, is one of the first documents the administration has released on the attack, which killed U.N. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
The summary, which has not been released publicly, contains information that was previously withheld by the White House, including information that contradicts the White, House and State Department claims that the attack was a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islam video.
The State Department has said the incident was a terror attack.
Graham and Blumenthal also wrote that the briefing should be released as soon as possible.
They wrote: This briefing summary is the result of a lengthy and extensive process, including multiple visits to Benghazi, numerous briefings, interviews, and a review of hundreds of hours of video and audio of the attack.
It was released in the context of a congressional hearing in which the administration provided a full, unclassified briefing summary.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the Sept 1, 2017, attack at the U,S.
consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday.
The attack on Sept. 12, 2012 prompted a diplomatic crisis in the Libyan capital of Tripoli that was resolved by the U.,S.
and international intervention that toppled longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Graham, who is also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Blumenthal, a member from Connecticut, sent the letter Monday.
The senators’ letter comes a day after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D–Calif., called for a briefing on the incident on Capitol Hill.
The Benghazi attack is among the top foreign policy issues that the Republican-controlled Congress has been investigating in recent months, as Congress prepares to consider legislation to punish the Libyan government for its role in the Sept.-11, 2012 attack.
