This is only a partial cave in by the White House, as the subject matter is limited to how the administration was going to describe the terrorist attack on our diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.
The documents will be sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Brennan confirmation.
Asked about an earlier report from The Associated Press, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to confirm that documents were being handed over, saying, “We are having conversations with members of Congress about their requests and we will continue those conversations.”
Key Republican senators had demanded the additional White House disclosures about the attacks as a condition of moving forward on Brennan.
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“The confirmation process should be about the nominees and their ability to do the jobs they’re nominated for,” Vietor said.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the documents would mollify two of the White House’s biggest critics on Benghazi, Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who have seized every opportunity to fault the White House over the attacks.
McCain and Graham have accused the White House of a cover-up worse than Watergate, and the storm of criticism led Obama’s first choice to become secretary of State, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, to bow out earlier this year.
With such a limited scope, it will be difficult for anyone to connect many dots using the emails. No doubt, this suits the White House just fine. Unraveling the large number of lies surrounding the president’s actions that night, as well as the response of Secretary of State Clinton and other top officials, will require far more information than a few emails.
But it is possible that something in the emails may lead to further inquiries. The point should be to keep up the pressure and use whatever leverage the GOP has to pry the truth from the administration about Benghazi.
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