A man Justice Department officials described as a key participant in the 2012 attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, was taken into U.S. custody Friday and will face prosecution.
Zubayar al-Bakoush was arrested in an undisclosed country and flown to an airfield near Washington, where he arrived just after 3 a.m. Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said. He faces an eight-count indictment on charges including murder, terrorism and arson.
Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel declined at a news conference to answer questions about where al-Bakoush was arrested and whether the operation that brought him into custody involved the assistance of foreign nations.
“We have never stopped seeking justice for that crime against our nation,” Bondi said.
In the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, at least 20 militants, armed with AK-47s and grenade launchers, stormed the U.S. mission in Benghazi, breaching its gates, forcing their way into offices and setting buildings ablaze. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, State Department employee Sean Smith and CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty were killed. Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador slain while performing his duties abroad in nearly four decades
Almost immediately, the incident became a subject for partisan finger-pointing, with Republican lawmakers faulting the Obama administration and especially then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for alleged security failures at the facility and what they described as a slow response to the violence. References to Benghazi — nearly 14 years later — remain a potent point of political division.
Even as they announced al-Bakoush’s arrest Friday, Justice Department officials seized the opportunity to swipe at frequent Republican targets, renew old lines of attack and credit President Donald Trump.
“Hillary Clinton famously once said about Benghazi, ‘What difference, at this point, does it make?’” Bondi said, referring to an irritated response Clinton gave during a 2013 Senate hearingat which she was repeatedly pressed about the motive for the attack.
“Well, it makes a difference to Donald Trump,” Bondi continued. “It makes a difference to those families and 14 years later, it makes a difference to law enforcement who made the difference in this case.”
A Republican-led congressional investigation into the incident later found no evidence of wrongdoing by Clinton, though it faulted the Obama administration more broadly for being slow to respond after the militants breached the gates.
Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Washington whose office is overseeing the prosecution, made reference to that frequent Republican criticism in her remarks Friday about al-Bakoush’s arrest.
In her prior role as a Fox News host, Pirro frequently waded into the debate over Benghazi, at one point accusing then-FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III of orchestrating a cover-up to protect administration officials.
“For 13 hours, the American cavalry never came,” she said Friday. “For 13, hours [the victims] waited for that help that never came.
Democrats have defended their efforts to prosecute individuals tied to the deaths of Stevens and the others, noting that the Justice Department had by late 2013 filed sealed complaints against roughly a dozen overseas militants accused of playing a role in the attack.
Pirro acknowledged Friday that the complaint that led to al-Bakoush’s arrest was first filed in 2015, during the final year of the Obama administration.
Court filings unsealed Friday described al-Bakoush as a member of an extremist Libyan militia who was identified by a cooperating FBI witness as one of the attackers caught on surveillance footage from the compound. Agents described footage showing al-Bakoush, with a firearm slung over his shoulder, attempting to break into cars of U.S. service members and following the crowd into buildings where Stephens and others were killed.
Al-Bakoush is the third man law enforcement officials have brought to the U.S. to face charges.
A federal jury in Washington in 2017 convicted Ahmed Abu Khattala, a Libyan militia leader and the accused mastermind behind the attack, on conspiracy and terrorism charges tied to the incident. A second militant, Mustafa al-Imam, was found guilty on similar charges in 2019. Both men were sentenced to prison terms of more than a decade.
“Time will not stop us from going after these predators, no matter how long it takes, to fulfill our obligation to those families who suffered horrific pain at the hands of these violent terrorists,” Pirro said.
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