U.S. Panel Asks Clinton to Testify by May 1 on Emails

A U.S. congressional panel investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks has called for Hillary Clinton to testify by May 1, following a scandal involving her exclusive use of private emails while secretary of state.

Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, made the request Tuesday after Clinton rejected his earlier demand that she turn over her private computer server, on which her emails were stored, to U.S. officials for a third-party review.

Clinton, who is mulling a 2016 presidential run, acknowledged earlier this month that she deleted nearly 32,000 personal emails written during her four-year tenure as President Barack Obama's top diplomat.

She said she handed over to the State Department for public preservation her 30,000 official emails.

On Friday, her lawyers said her email server was wiped clean.

"This committee is left with no alternative but to request Secretary Clinton appear before this committee for a transcribed interview to better understand decisions the Secretary made relevant to the creation, maintenance, retention and ultimately deletion of public records," Gowdy said in a letter to Clinton's lawyer David Kendall.

"The committee is willing to schedule the interview at a time convenient for secretary Clinton but no later than May 1, 2015," he added.

Gowdy said the testimony should be conducted as a "transcribed interview," presumably in a non-public setting, that would "best protect Secretary Clinton's privacy (and) the security of the information queried.

A public hearing would follow.

In January 2013, Clinton testified before lawmakers on the U.S. mission in Benghazi on the September 11, 2012 attacks that claimed the lives of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.

Her team has made it known she is prepared to return to Capitol Hill for an open hearing.

Gowdy warned that Clinton had created a "unique arrangement with herself as it relates to public records" while secretary of state, and characterized such an arrangement as "highly unusual, if not unprecedented."

Persistent debate over Clinton's use of a private email account at State threatens to tarnish any rollout this spring of her all-but-certain presidential campaign.

Should Clinton enter the race, she would be the clear Democratic frontrunner for 2016. The Republican nomination contest is more wide open.