Two Parents Of Americans Killed In Benghazi Attacks Sue Hillary Clinton – Here’s What Led Up To The Lawsuit

The parents of two Americans who were killed in the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya have filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton. The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in federal court on Monday, and is blaming the former secretary of state for conditions that lead to the death of their children. Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, the parents of Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, claim that Hillary’s use of a private e-mail server contributed to the attacks.

“The Benghazi attack was directly and proximately caused, at a minimum by defendant Clinton’s ‘extreme carelessness’ in handling confidential and classified information,” the lawsuit said. The classified information refers to communications between Clinton and the ambassador, the location of State Department employees in Libya and such.

The lawsuit spotlights Clinton’s private email server that she used while she was secretary of state by saying that it “could have contributed to the deaths.” This speculation is based on the fact that Clinton communicated with Ambassador Christopher Stevens through the private server. The lawsuit believes that the emails could be hacked, “easily found its way to foreign powers” then obtained by Islamic terrorists, and “it was reasonably foreseeable that Islamic terrorists would premeditatedly kill” their children.

During the FBI’s investigation of Hillary’s private e-mail server last month, current Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey said it was “possible that hostile actors gained access” to it. However, no evidence of such activities was ever found.

Smith was an information management officer and Woods was a security officer, both stationed in Benghazi when up to 150 gunmen attacked the compound with RPGs, hand grenades, AK-47s, mortars, heavy machine guns and artillery mounted on gun trucks.

The parents were represented by Washington, D.C., lawyer Larry Klayman, who has criticized the Clintons in the past.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton, said in a statement, “While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton.”

The civil suit brought by Smith and Woods includes claims of intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, as well as defaming them in public statements.

“During her campaign for President, Defendant Clinton has negligently, recklessly, and/or maliciously defamed Plaintiffs by either directly calling them liars, or by strongly implying that they are liars, in order to protect and enhance her public image and intimidate and emotionally harm and silence them not to speak up about the Benghazi attack on at least four separate occasions,” Larry Klayman, an attorney for the families, wrote in his complaint.

Pat Smith gave a speech at the Republican National Convention, where she said, “When I saw Hillary Clinton at Sean’s coffin ceremony, just days later, she looked me squarely in the eye and told me a video was responsible.” The greiving mother then said “I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son.”

Clinton refuted the accusations by telling Chris Wallace on Fox News, “I don’t hold any ill feeling for someone who in that moment may not fully recall everything that was or wasn’t said.”

Charles Woods has also been extremely vocal about calling out Hillary Clinton for the death of his son.

As Woods said in the interview, “Hillary went on national television at the casket ceremony and repeated the same untruth.” Here is footage of the former secretary of state where she said the following:

“This has been a difficult week for the State Department and for our country. We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with.”

However, on September 11, 2012, the night of the Benghazi attacks, Clinton sent an email to her daughter Chelsea in which she wrote that the siege was done by an “Al-Qaeda-like group.”

From the Daily Mail:

“Under the alias Diane Reynolds, that two officers had been killed, and attributed the attack to an Al-Qaeda group rather than a spontaneous protest at the Obama Administration later described it.

‘Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al Qaeda-like group: The Ambassador, whom I handpicked and a young communications officer on temporary duty w a wife and two young children. Very hard day and I fear more of the same tomorrow,’ she wrote in the email.”

Within 24 hours of the attacks Clinton also messaged Libyan President Mohamed Magariaf and Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil telling them that the attack seemed to have been committed by an al-Qaida-like group.

Reuters reported in October of 2012 that a mere two hours after the attack, that the White House and State officials knew that the murders were carried out by Ansar al-Sharia, an al-Qaida affiliated group in Libya:

Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.

The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.

The brief emails also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington.

Last fall, Clinton answered eight hours of questioning from a Republican-led House committee over her handling of the Benghazi attack and the aftermath. In June, the House Committee on Benghazi issued their final report on the siege that took the life of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the first U.S. Ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979.

From ABC News:

The report says there was intelligence leading up to the attacks that the diplomatic consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi were not safe and that top officials in the State Department, including then– Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy, should have realized that.

It is also critical of top officials’ deliberations during the attacks and the lack of troop mobilization as it unfolded.

In one detail revealed in the report, a U.S. military unit mobilized after the attacks changed in and out of their uniforms and civilian clothes four times. The report also concluded that none of the military forces mobilized met required deployment timelines.

Democrats on the committee were not allowed to co-author the report and accused the majority of shutting them out of the drafting and interview process. They issued their own findings Monday: a 339-page report that they say dispels “conspiracy theories” about the attacks. In it, they quote former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus, who testified before the committee that he was still uncertain what exactly motivated the attackers to storm the diplomatic compound.

The report found no evidence of wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton.

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