Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry informing him that the Oversight Committee has issued subpoenas to interview four State Department officials with information about the situation in Benghazi prior to and shortly after the attacks. At least three of these four officials had their names introduced to committee members in previous hearings.

In a Press Release, the Oversight Committee named the individuals whose depositions are being sought:

Eric Boswell, Former Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Diplomatic Security

Scott Bultrowicz, Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director of the Diplomatic Security Service, Bureau of Diplomatic Security

Elizabeth Dibble, Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs

Elizabeth Jones, Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau Near Eastern Affairs

Perhaps most revealing might be the depositions of Eric Boswell and Scott Bultrowicz, thanks to testimony given by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb back on October 10th. When questioned by Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL), a former law einforcement officer who is no longer in Congress after serving one term, Lamb was asked if she had ‘sole discretion to deny extra manpower’.

Lamb said no and then reluctantly gave Adams the names of two people who did – Boswell and Bultrowiz. The obvious question for these two men would involve whether they had ‘sole discretion to deny extra manpower’. If their answers are similar to Ms. Lamb’s, we will have names of officials above them who would have had ‘sole discretion to deny extra manpower’ in Benghazi.

Here is that exchange, in which Lamb gives up the names in the first minute.

Seven months later, on May 8th, at another House Oversight Committee hearing, whistleblower Gregrory Hicks testified about Benghazi. During that testimony, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) read from a September 12th email sent by… Elizabeth Jones to multiple members at the State Department. In that letter, Jones relayed that she had spoken to the Libyan ambassador and told him that “the group that conducted the attacks – Ansar al-Sharia – is affiliated with Islamic terrorists”. This belied what U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice alleged on five Sunday talk shows just four days later.

Elizabeth (Beth) Jones is introduced in this clip at about the 2:45 mark:

Based on what we know about these individuals, perhaps it’s not all that surprising that Issa has had to resort to subpoenas instead of having his simple requests for interviews fall on deaf ears at the State Department.