{"id":2596521,"date":"2026-04-29T08:14:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senator-biden-agency-used-benghazi-to-hide-emails-on-planned-parenthood-loans\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T08:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:15:59","slug":"senator-biden-agency-used-benghazi-to-hide-emails-on-planned-parenthood-loans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senator-biden-agency-used-benghazi-to-hide-emails-on-planned-parenthood-loans\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator: Biden Agency Used &#8216;Benghazi&#8217; To Hide Emails"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsenator-biden-agency-used-benghazi-to-hide-emails-on-planned-parenthood-loans%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2596521&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The text argues that the term \u201cBenghazi\u201d is being used as a codename within the Biden management to refer to internal handling of Planned Parenthood\u2019s COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and later loan forgiveness. It recounts how, during the summer of 2021, Senate Small Business Commitee Chair Joni Ernst says SBA officials used the \u201cBenghazi (PPP\/PPH) Decisions\u201d label in emails discussing whether Planned Parenthood affiliates were eligible for PPP loans and how to respond to Congressional inquiries. Ernst claims the subject-line wording suggests officials tried to avoid making requests \u201cresponsive\u201d to searches focused on abortion-related records,and she asserts this may have involved attempts at concealment of federal records,potentially violating the Federal Records Act.<\/p>\n<p>The article links these claims to earlier controversy around Planned Parenthood receiving PPP funding that Republicans said was improper under the CARES Act\u2019s eligibility rules, with Planned Parenthood denying wrongdoing and saying its operations followed CARES Act and SBA eligibility requirements. Ernst\u2019s letter to the acting attorney general alleges that after SBA meetings and \u201cstrategizing\u201d with White House involvement, about $90 million in Planned Parenthood PPP loans (plus interest) were forgiven, and she calls for a DOJ examination-framing it as a \u201cnew Benghazi\u201d scandal tied to transparency concerns rather than the original Benghazi attack. The piece closes by connecting the issue to a pending expiration of a policy restricting Medicaid funding for abortion facilities, urging pro-life Republicans to extend that restriction.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The moment is etched in 21st century memory. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JFZytEUCXu4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shrill voice<\/a> of then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, agitated and stretched, still rings in the ears.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they\u2019d they go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?\u201d Clinton, with dreams of the White House dancing in her head, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/a\/25262\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">scolded <\/a> Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., during an early 2013 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. <\/p>\n<p>The Wisconsin Republican had gotten under Clinton\u2019s skin, asking her about the secretary\u2019s slow response to a preventable attack in September 2012 on a U.S. diplomatic mission in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/event\/112th-congress\/house-event\/LC2350\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Benghazi, Libya<\/a>. Benghazi became a political lightning rod, the leading symbol of the Obama administration\u2019s anemic, incompetent, and deceptive foreign policy, particularly Clinton\u2019s ineffectual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2015\/10\/13\/hillary_clinton_says_libya_is_an_example_of_smart_power_at_its_best_jim_webb_disagrees.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cSmart Power\u201d<\/a> strategy. More so, the committee investigating Benghazi opened the lock to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2016\/05\/25\/federal-ig-hillary-clintons-secret-server-scheme-violated-federal-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Clinton\u2019s emails, the secret server<\/a>, and more Clinton lies and obfuscation that contributed to her stunning loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. <\/p>\n<p>So what on earth does Benghazi have to do with abortion factory Planned Parenthood? It appears to be the codename for cover-up involving some $90 million in taxpayer-funded Covid-era forgivable loans to a nonprofit organization ineligible to receive the government handout. <\/p>\n<p>Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is asking the Department of Justice to open an investigation into why President Joe Biden\u2019s Small Business Administration used \u201cBenghazi\u201d in the subject lines of internal communications regarding the funding. Ernst, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, asserts \u201cBenghazi\u201d is code for \u201cthe possible unlawful concealment and attempted concealment of federal records by President Biden\u2019s Small Business Administration officials, and potentially their White House colleagues \u2014 a violation of the Federal Records Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Benghazi (PPP\/PPH) Decisions\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ernst.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/benghazi_letter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> this week to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Ernst details the emails her office has obtained to date revealing that Biden officials, apparently led by the SBA\u2019s top lawyer, developed strategies to explain how Planned Parenthood qualified for <a href=\"https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/policy-issues\/coronavirus\/assistance-for-small-businesses\/paycheck-protection-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Paycheck Protection Program<\/a> Loans. <\/p>\n<p>An email from SBA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/haitianladiesnetwork\/photos\/a.1698099280301905\/3597020663743081\/?type=3&#038;_rdr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">General Council Peggy Hamilton<\/a>, dated April 30, 2021, appears to be the first with the subject line, \u201cBenghazi (PPP\/PPH) Decisions\u201d in the subject line. Note that the reference to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/stacey-abrams-tied-loan-firm-shifted-its-liabilities-to-u-s-taxpayers-and-it-paid-off-handsomely\/\" title=\"Stacey Abrams-Tied Loan Firm Shifted Its Liabilities to U.S. Taxpayers, and It Paid off Handsomely\">small business loan program<\/a> and the abortion provider are in parentheses, making requests for communications about the Covid relief program nonresponsive, or not relevant to key records search terms. The agency arguably would not have to turn over the requested information because, understandably, \u201cBenghazi\u201d would not be in the Freedom of Information Act request.  <\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p><em>Source: Senate Small Business Committee<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Hamilton\u2019s email was part of a months-long thread about Planned Parenthood\u2019s SBA loans, as well as the abortion giant\u2019s loan forgiveness requests. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe context of Hamilton\u2019s email, as subsequent SBA emails elucidate, is whether or not the Biden administration would require the repayment of COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans made to potentially ineligible Planned Parenthood affiliates and how the SBA would respond to Congressional inquiries over its decisions,\u201d Ernst\u2019s letter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ernst.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/benghazi_letter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">states<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The loans were meant for employers with less than 500 employees, designed to help cover the paychecks for employees of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gov-newsom-says-calif-helped-create-tesla\/\" title=\"Gov. Newsom says Calif. helped create Tesla\">small businesses hit hard<\/a> by the pandemic and the destructive government-ordered lockdowns that accompanied it. Republican lawmakers, upon learning of PPP loans going to to the abortion industrial complex, demanded President Donald Trump\u2019s DOJ at the time investigate which Planned Parenthood facilities received forgivable loans. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese Planned Parenthood entities self-certified eligibility for these loans despite the clear ineligibility under the statutory text of the CARES Act,\u201d Republican senators wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.young.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/young-joins-26-senators-in-urging-doj-to-investigate-improper-ppp-funding-for-planned-parenthood\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> to then-Attorney General Bill Barr. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/116th-congress\/senate-bill\/3548\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CARES Act<\/a> was the first massive infusion of panic cash thrown about to deal with Covid and the fear attached to it. <\/p>\n<p>The Planned Parenthood Federation of America <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/Politics\/republican-senators-upset-planned-parenthood-affiliates-received-ppp\/story?id=70832652\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">denied<\/a> any wrongdoing, asserting that some independent operations were awarded loans under the \u201celigibility rules established by the CARES Act and the Small Business Administration (SBA).\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Yes, Let\u2019s Talk Benghazi\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Over the next year, Republicans sought answers to what they described as the \u201cunlawful participation of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA)\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>At the end of April 2021, Biden SBA officials began their \u201cBenghazi\u201d conversations. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan I schedule a meeting so we can decision Benghazi (Planned Parenthood)?\u201d Hamilton, the SBA\u2019s general counsel, wrote in an email to SBA Chief of Staff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.score.org\/contributor\/antwaun-griffin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Antwaun Griffin,\u201d<\/a> according to documents obtained by Ernst.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, let\u2019s talk Benghazi,\u201d Griffin replies. The bureaucrat\u2019s top qualification seems to have been his service to President Barack Obama\u2019s Georgia campaign. It\u2019s clear from the emails that they are not talking about the Libyan port city. <\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p><em>Source: Senate Small Business Committee<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In early May of that year, Hamilton sent out an eight-point plan, including \u201creviewing loans to non-profit PPP applicants to decision whether affiliation bars eligibility.\u201d (Apparently decision used as a verb was part of the leftist lexicon in the Biden administration.) As Ernst notes in her letter, prior \u201cSBA decisions were that Planned Parenthood itself and many of its affiliates applying for small business loans, were too large for the program due to their corporate relationship structure and affiliation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All under the subject line \u201cBenghazi,\u201d the SBA officials discussed how to explain it all to increasingly frustrated Republicans in Congress. <\/p>\n<p>The emails show that the \u201cWH\u201d \u2014 presumably the White House \u2014 \u201chas been engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeed to inform WH as decisions are made. No further action required,\u201d Hamilton wrote in an email. Ernst said it is possible that White House officials \u201cmay have <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >helped conceal official federal records<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The original damage in taxpayer-funded loans to the abortion giant was tagged at more than $90 million. But the Biden administration, according to Ernst, allowed other Planned Parenthood operations to draw down a second round of PPP small business loans, with the adjusted total of all issued loans at north of $120 million.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe now know that after the SBA Biden officials met, planned, and strategized (over \u201cBenghazi\u201d), keeping the White House involved, approximately $90 million in Planned Parenthood SBA PPP loans and interest on the loans were forgiven by the Biden administration,\u201d Ernst wrote in her letter to the acting AG. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the records detailed here, and many more I\u2019ve obtained, perhaps now we know why the Biden administration did not want to share its Planned Parenthood records with Congress,\u201d the letter concludes. <\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p><em>Source: Senate Small Business Committee <\/em><\/p>\n<h2>The New \u2018Benghazi\u2019 Scandal<\/h2>\n<p>As Ernst calls for an investigation into the SBA\u2019s actions, a one-year ban on Medicaid funds for abortion facilities is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/exclusive-pence-warns-gop-must-deliver-planned-parenthood-gets-taxpayer-cash-fourth-july-deadline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">set to expire<\/a> \u2014 on the Fourth of July. Planned Parenthood lost about a <a href=\"https:\/\/texasrighttolife.com\/congress-defunds-planned-parenthood-for-the-first-time-ever\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">half-billion dollars<\/a> in federal Medicaid payments, money that pro-life advocates say must remain out of the abortion factory\u2019s hands. <\/p>\n<p>The new \u201cBenghazi\u201d scandal should light a fire under pro-life Republicans to find a way to extend the ban. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is now a basic pro-life policy expectation and the GOP base overwhelmingly supports it,\u201d Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement. \u201cWe urge Congress to stand strong and do everything in its power to pass a reconciliation bill that keeps Big Abortion defunded. Taxpayers should never be forced to fund the brutality of abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ernst said Biden administration officials need to be held accountable for, at the least, obfuscating important records that congress and the public have a right to see. Under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/18\/2071\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">U.S. Code,<\/a> anyone who \u201cwillfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to,\u201d conceal federal records face fines and imprisonment of up to three years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve already exposed the Biden administration\u2019s blatant disregard for transparency, but this potential cover-up demands answers,\u201d the Iowa senator said in a press release.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The moment remains etched in 21st-century memory: Clinton\u2019s agitated \u201cfour dead Americans\u201d remarks still ring on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2596522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-29-at-1.01.41-AM-1024x571.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[73113,3620,4012],"class_list":["post-2596521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-benghazi","tag-biden","tag-senator"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-29-at-1.01.41-AM-1024x571.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2596521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2596525,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596521\/revisions\/2596525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2596522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2596521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2596521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2596521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}