US panel asks Clinton to testify by May 1 on private emails

A US congressional panel investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks called for Hillary Clinton today to testify by May 1, following a scandal involving her use of private emails while secretary of state.

Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, made the request after Clinton rejected his earlier demand that she turn over her private computer server, on which her emails were stored, to US officials for a third-party review.

Clinton, who is mulling a 2016 presidential run, acknowledged on March 10 that she deleted nearly 32,000 personal emails written during her four-year tenure as President Barack Obama's top diplomat.

She said she handed her 30,000 official emails over to the State Department for public preservation.

On Friday, her lawyers said her email server was wiped clean.

"This committee is left with no alternative but to request Secretary Clinton appear before this committee for a transcribed interview to better understand decisions the Secretary made relevant to the creation, maintenance, retention and ultimately deletion of public records," Gowdy said in a letter to Clinton's lawyer David Kendall.

"The committee is willing to schedule the interview at a time convenient for secretary Clinton but no later than May 1, 2015," he added.

Gowdy said the testimony should be conducted as a "transcribed interview," presumably in a non-public setting, that would best protect Secretary Clinton's privacy (and) the security of the information queried.