Clinton to appear in Oct before congressional committee on Benghazi: spokesman

Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the investigating committee, had sought to hear from Clinton, the front-runner in polls for the Democratic nomination in next year's presidential election, on the attacks.

"Earlier this week we were pleased for Secretary Clinton to receive an offer from Congressman Gowdy to appear before the committee in a public hearing in October, and yesterday accepted his invitation," campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said.

Clinton was secretary of state at the time of the attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, which resulted in the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Congressional Republicans have scrutinized Clinton's handling of the incident, which brought about criticism for using her own private account for email for official business rather than a government server.

At least four emails out of some 30,000 from that private account contained classified information, according to a government inspector's letter to Congress this week.

(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Ros Russell)