WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the deadly Benghazi attacks called in a former top aide to Hillary Clinton for an interview Thursday, as the panel resumes its review of the 2012 terrorist attack in Libya and Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state.

Meeting behind closed doors, members of the panel questioned Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s former chief of staff. Jake Sullivan, another former top aide who now works on Clinton’s presidential campaign, was due to be interviewed Friday. Both sessions will be off limits to the public.

Former Clinton aide Cheryl Mills speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday following her deposition before the panel investigating Benghazi. The Associated Press

Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, chairman of the Benghazi committee, said before the interview began that Mills “is no different from any other witnesses” who also have been interviewed in private. The panel was likely to ask Mills about her role in preparing “talking points” for Obama administration officials after the 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Questions also would likely focus on Clinton’s use of a private email account and server while she was secretary of state.

Clinton has dismissed both controversies as “partisan games.”

The interview with Mills comes as a former State Department employee who helped Clinton set up the private email server said he will assert his Fifth Amendment right not to testify before the Benghazi panel.

Attorneys for Bryan Pagliano sent the committee a letter Monday saying their client would not testify at a hearing planned for next week. The panel subpoenaed Pagliano last month.

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