House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said Wednesday that newly obtained emails that provided real-time updates about the attacks on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, make it "really difficult" to understand how White Officials initially concluded the violence was the result of a spontaneous protest.
The emails, first reported by Reuters, suggest that officials in the White House and intelligence community knew within hours of the September terrorist attack that the group Ansar al Sharia had claimed responsibility for the violence on social media.
Rogers said Wednesday during an interview with CNN that the fact that administration officials knew within hours of the terrorist group's claims raised further questions about the White House narrative.
"What I believe happened is that somebody saw something that they thought was the way that they wanted to talk about it, versus what the facts on the ground were," Rogers said.
In the days following the incident that left four Americans dead, the administration continued to cite an anti-Islam YouTube video as sparking the violence. Officials later acknowledged it was a planned assault and have said they shared intelligence with lawmakers and the public as details became clear.
The Michigan lawmaker said that the emails, in conjunction with previous terror attacks on the compound, make it "really hard to come to this conclusion that [the assault] was just spontaneous, and just kind of happened."
Rogers went on to say there were serious implications in highlighting the anti-Islam video in the hours after the attack, as violent protests continued to spread around the Middle East.
"It's about the fact that decisions were made, big policy decisions, including elevating the video that, if you listen to those email or read those emails, nothing about the video — it elevated the video and actually caused more protests across the Middle East," Rogers said.
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