WASHINGTON — The Obama administration Wednesday released a cache of internal emails relating to last year's terrorist attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya.
During an hour long background briefing with reporters, senior administration officials presented the interagency emails in which the first public talking points surrounding the attack were developed, arguing they are indicative of routine communications surrounding national security matters. White House officials believe the emails prove there was no cover-up of a terrorist attack, as some Republican critics of the administration have alleged.
Members of Congress have already seen the cache of emails, which detail communications between senior CIA officials, White House officials and State Department officials.
Officials described a process where the talking points were drafted by the CIA at the request of Congress.
An administration official told BuzzFeed the emails refute Republican claims that the talking points were drafted as a political measure to cover the White House. The emails describe a request for talking points by House intelligence members, including Republican Rep. Mike Rodgers.
"As you can see, this was not a political process but an apolitical process in response to a request from Congress," the official said.
Read the emails, provided to BuzzFeed three-ring binder, as posted in electronic form by CNN.