Hillary Clinton's Benghazi testimony

The most important updates from the high-stakes hearing on Oct. 22, 2015

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Sept. 11, 2012Around 9:40 p.m. local time, a few attackers scaled the wall of the diplomatic post and opened the front gate, allowing dozens of armed men in. Local Libyan security guards fled. A U.S. security officer shepherded Stevens and Sean Smith, a State Department communications specialist, into a fortified "safe room" in the main building.Attackers set the building and its furniture on fire. Stevens and Smith were overcome by blinding, choking smoke that prevented security officers from reaching them. Libyan civilians found Stevens in the wreckage hours later and took him to a hospital, where he, like Smith, died of smoke inhalation.Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty in more than 30 years.A security team from the CIA annex about a mile away arrived to help about 25 minutes into the attack, armed only with rifles and handguns. The U.S. personnel fled with Smith's body back to the annex in armored vehicles.

<h2>Hours after the first attack</h2>

A few hours after the first attack ended, the annex was twice targeted by early morning mortar fire. The second round killed Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, two CIA security contractors who were defending the annex from the rooftop. A team of six security officials summoned from Tripoli and a Libyan military unit helped evacuate the remaining U.S. personnel on the site to the airport and out of Benghazi. Credit: GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GettyImages

<h2>The following weeks</h2>

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

<h2>October 2012</h2>

The month after the fatal assault, Clinton declared she had been responsible for the safety of those serving in Benghazi, without acknowledging any specific mistakes on her part. Four senior State Department officials were put on paid leave after the independent accountability board said that security at the Benghazi mission that night was "grossly inadequate." After a review, the department reassigned three officials to positions of lesser responsibility; one resigned.<br><br>Some Republicans complained that no one was fired. Critics also questioned why the board didn't interview Clinton during its investigation. Credit: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/GettyImages

<h2>2013</h2>

In her last congressional testimony on the attacks, in January 2013, Clinton rejected GOP suggestions that the administration tried to mislead the country about the attacks. She said she was focused on how to improve security and that it didn't matter what triggered the assault.<br><br>"What difference, at this point, does it make?" she asked Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., with evident exasperation. "It is our job to figure out what happened and prevent it from ever happening again, senator." Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

2014-2015Since it was created in May 2014, the House Select Committee has held three public hearings, the last in January. It has interviewed 54 witnesses, including seven eyewitnesses to the attacks who had not been interviewed in previous investigations. The committee also has reviewed more than 50,000 pages of documents never before given to Congress, including emails from the ambassador and other top State Department personnel.After at least seven investigations, more than a dozen public hearings and the release of thousands of pages of documents over the past three years, the arguments remain the same.In March, however, the committee found new focus when it was revealed that Clinton used a private email account for government business. The committee subsequently subpoenaed all her email correspondence related to Libya.Clinton's testimony on Thursday could make or break the credibility of the 17-month-old inquiry led by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.