Benghazi Witnesses Questioned by Congressional Committee in Secret Hearing

Department of Justice was initially unwilling to allow them to testify

Two of the Justice Department's key witnesses in last year's terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, were summoned to Capitol Hill this month and grilled for hours in separate legal depositions.

Responding to congressional subpoenas, the State Department security agents were asked how the Libyan terrorists stormed the mission and set parts of it on fire, how they were armed and how they killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, sources with knowledge of the matter said. The agents also were asked about security breakdowns and whether the administration reacted appropriately to the Sept. 11, 2012, assault.

How those highly guarded and secret interviews came about was part of an increasingly bitter dispute between two branches of the federal government.