The House Benghazi Committee chairman is in Montana this week stumping for Rep. Ryan Zinke’s re-election.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, is scheduled to appear with Montana’s Republican congressman at four fundraising events across the state beginning with an afternoon event in Kalispell on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for Zinke said he will talk about “national security, the economy, natural resources and the Obama Administration’s war on the West.” Gowdy will talk about “respect for the rule of law, security in all its manifestations, and oversight.”
The pair will be in Missoula and Hamilton on Wednesday and Bozeman on Thursday.
Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, gained national notoriety for leading a congressional probe into the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans who were working for the government at a diplomatic outpost died, among them Ambassador Chris Stevens.
In the wake of the attack, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said the attack was spurred by a video that insulted Muslims. That same video had been the focus of protests in nearby Cairo on the same day. But the administration’s initial narrative was walked back. And it was later acknowledged that the attack was planned by Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.
Gowdy’s investigation began in 2014 and ended in a final report issued in late June. It ultimately found that the Obama administration’s talking points were incorrect but not purposefully deceptive. But the report also blasted the CIA, defense department and state department leaders for failing to protect diplomatic personnel.
Since its beginning, Gowdy’s probe has been criticized by Democrats as an attempt to derail Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. However, the committee also uncovered Clinton’s improper use of a personal email server to transmit classified information during her four years as secretary of state.