Hillary accepts “invitation” to testify before Benghazi Committee. Translation: It is optically favorable to showing up in handcuffs

From Sarah Westwood, Washington Examiner

Hillary Clinton accepted on Friday an invitation to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi in October.

Chairman Trey Gowdy asked Clinton to appear before the committee earlier this week, according to campaign spokesman Nick Merrill.

Merrill also disputed media reports that Clinton had handled classified information improperly on her private email server, which prompted two inspectors general to refer the matter to the Justice Department for a possible criminal investigation.

“Friday began with the printing of a story that was false,” Merrill said in a statement. “Entities from the highest levels of two branches of government have now made that clear.”

Gowdy had asked Clinton to testify before the committee about her use of personal email address and server to shield her official communications from the government network and her role in the security failures that led to the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi.

Clinton has been forced to respond to questions about her emails, among other points of controversy, in the early days of her campaign as details of the unusual arrangement have emerged.

She has repeatedly maintained that she broke no laws by using a personal account and that no classified information passed through the server.

But a report in the New York Times Friday indicated hundreds of the private emails she chose to give the State Department could contain classified intelligence.

Clinton has not yet appeared before the Benghazi committee, whose sole purpose is to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack.