Hillary Clinton to appear before Benghazi panel in October

WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Former Secretary of State and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton will testify Oct. 22 before a House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks that left four Americans dead.

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said the testimony will be in public before the Republican-led House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Clinton, the frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, had previously offered to testify in public, but the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said he preferred a private interview. Clinton's team objected on the grounds a closed session could allow Republicans to pick and choose unflattering details to leak. Clinton's team also accuse the committee of dragging out the investigation into 2016 to better use it against her in her campaign.

In September 2012, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, as well as Central Intelligence Agency contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were killed when militants overran two U.S. compounds in Benghazi.

Clinton has said she had no direct role in security decisions surrounding U.S. facilities, but Republicans claim her State Department failed to provide protections that might have prevented the attacks.

The committee is also investigating Clinton's decision to use a personal email server for official State Department business.