On Tuesday, Judicial Watch released emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show then-White House deputy strategic communications adviser Ben Rhodes collaborated with other senior White House officials to shield President Obama from criticism following the September 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. In the emails, Rhodes explained the “goal” is “to underscore that these protests are rooted in [an] Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy.”
As TheBlaze reported, several top White House staffers, including political strategist David Plouffe and press secretary Jay Carney, were involved in these emails, some of which were circulated just a day before then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on television to blame the attacks on a YouTube video.
See the documents obtained by Judicial Watch HERE.
Carney was asked about the damning emails during a Wednesday press briefing at the White House, and he concocted a bizarre excuse for the documents.
“The emails and the talking points were not about Benghazi,” Carney told reporters Wednesday. “They were about the general situation in the Muslim world where you saw, as you might recall, it was explicitly not about Benghazi, it was about the overall situation in the region, the Muslim world, where we saw protests outside of embassy facilities across the region.”
The press secretary went on to tell ABC News' Jon Karl that while "the connection between the attack and the video turned out not to be the case," the White House was operating "based on the best information that we had."
“The overall issue of unrest in the Muslim world and the dangers posed by these protests to our embassies was very much a topic in the news," Carney said. “The implication is that we were somehow holding back information when it fact we were simply saying what we thought was right. And when elements of that turned out not to be true, we were the first people to say so. It was based on what we knew at the time.”
On last night's Glenn Beck Program, Dana Loesch filled in for Glenn and was joined by Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who responded to Carney's claims and to discuss the the 18 month long process his organization went through to obtain these emails.
“These documents, first of all, weren’t voluntarily disclosed. We had to go to court to get access to the information. We’ve been sitting around since October of 2012 waiting for it," Fitton said. “We sued for documents about talking points given to [former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice] related to Benghazi. This document was produced to us in response to our lawsuit.”
When you consider Carney is explicitly tied to these emails, his laughable answer at Wednesday's press conference begins to make a little more sense.
"Look, you know, Jay Carney is tied into this document. He is one of the e-mail recipients of this prep call document where the emphasis was on protecting the President rather than telling the truth," Fitton explained. "And so it should have been turned over to Congress. There’s obstruction questions… Withholding information from Congress can be a crime."
As Fitton explained, when Congress asks for documents like the ones released by Judicial Watch on Tuesday, it must go through a "political process." Judicial Watch, on the other hand, was able to go to court and sue the Obama Administration.
"The gamesmanship didn’t work here," Fitton said. "And that’s why we got the document."
Ultimately, these newly released documents prove the now infamous talking points spewed by Rice on the Sunday morning shows originated from the White House.
"This brings it right into the White House, and it shows that the idea that the CIA created the talking points that Susan Rice was using is a big fat lie," Fitton concluded. "And there was a press operation in the White House that was pushing this line [to]emphasize the video… and protect the President."
