Key participant in 2012 Benghazi attack has been brought to U.S. to face charges, DOJ says

An alleged key participant in the 2012 attack in Benghazi attack that killed four Americans has been taken into custody and is now facing charges in the U.S., Justice Department officials said Friday.

The case against Zubayar al-Bakoush was announced by Attorney General Pam Bondi, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannie Pirro, and FBI Director Kash Patel.

“Al-Bakoush will now face American justice on American soil,” Bondi said.

Bondi said that Al-Bakoush had landed at Joint Base Andrews at 3 a.m. on Friday. Officials didn’t say how long he’d been in custody, or where he had been apprehended, just that he was in the U.S. and would face charges in the District of Columbia.

The attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi in 2012 killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.

Pirro said that an eight-count indictment charged Al-Bakoush with crimes including the murders of Stevens and State Department employee Sean Smith. The case was brought during the Obama administration in 2015 and was sealed for more than a decade.

It was unclear if Al-Bakoush had an attorney representing him.

The 2012 attack on the U.S. compound became an instantly divisive political issue; Republicans criticized the response by President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, questioned the administration’s narrative about who was responsible and the security on the compound.

Republicans in the House launched six investigations of the Obama administration’s handling of the episode.

The United States has not had an embassy in Libya since 2014 due to a chaotic civil war and in the wake of the 2012 deadly attack.

U.S. officials handling diplomacy with Libya have operated from the American embassy in neighboring Tunisia and Americans are encouraged to avoid travel to Libya.

In March 2024, the Biden administration told Congress it planned to reopen an embassy in Libya in 2025, and requested funding from lawmakers. But the Trump administration has not said what it plans to do in Libya.