Benghazi Emails Released Messages Show State Department, CIA Had Often-Tense Debate Over What to Disclose About Attacks

By COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON and ADAM ENTOUS

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Marines at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland last September carry caskets of the remains of the four Americans killed in Benghazi, Libya.

WASHINGTON—More than 100 pages of emails released by the White House on Wednesday depict a protracted, frustrating and often tense debate about what should be contained in public "talking points" about last year's deadly assault in Benghazi, Libya.
The emails reveal a tussle within the administration about what it could confidently say about the attacks while an investigation into the assault was ongoing.
Senior administration officials said the emails—which the White House released to try to quell a partisan controversy—encompassed a two-day discussion among several agencies as officials wrote and rewrote the talking points on the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks.
Republicans have charged that the White House had political motives—less than two months before the presidential election—for changing the talking points to remove references to terrorist involvement in the assault.