Sen. Schumer emerges as surprise key player in Benghazi scandal

by:  Anthony Martin
In a surprise disclosure today that is sure to impact the scope and direction of the upcoming select committee's investigation into the Benghazi massacre, investigators say that U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. has emerged as a key player in the scandal. So far after a year and a half since the massacre took place, Schumer's name has never been connected to any of the events on the night a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were slaughtered by Islamist terrorists at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
But investigators now have poured over the White House visitors' log and discovered that Sen. Schumer signed into the White House on the night of the Benghazi attacks. Schumer logged into the White House at 5:30 p.m. on the evening of Sept. 11, 2012 and logged out at 11:59 p.m.
Schumer entered the White House at roughly the same time as Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There is, however, some discrepancy as to the time line. It was previously reported that Panetta and Demspey met with Obama at 5 p.m. But it is easy to account for the discrepancy. Panetta and Dempsey were meeting in the Oval Office with Obama. Schumer, on the other hand, met with his chief of staff, Michael Lynch, at Democratic Policy and Communications Center, along with former Schumer Deputy Press Secretary Christopher Scribner, and Pete Rouse, Legal Counsel to the President.

Thus, one of the objectives of Schumer's visit to the White House was to gather his top aides for a meeting with Obama's Chief Legal Counsel. But why?
Further, investigators report that long after Schumer's meeting with Rouse he stayed in the White House until roughly midnight, long after all other parties in the West Wing had logged out. Again, why?
Answers are few at this time. But at the bare minimum it is safe to say that it is highly unusual for a U.S. senator to be at the White House until midnight on the very night that a massacre that killed Americans was taking place in a volatile region of the world. Schumer's presence does not pass the smell test.