Hillary Clinton will appear before a congressional panel on Oct. 22, to testify about her activities as secretary of state at the time of the Benghazi attacks, the chairman of the committee looking into the assault on the the U.S. consulate in Libya said on Sunday.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy told Fox News he had come to an agreement with the Democratic presidential front-runner, who had demanded that his panel call her only once.

"We have agreed on the date," Gowdy revealed. "And the ground rules are simple: You're going to stay there until all of the questions are asked and answered with respect to Benghazi."

The congressman also anticipated that his colleagues might grill the former top diplomat for as long as it takes during her October appearance. "If she's going to insist that she's only coming once," he said, "[then] I'm going to insist that once be fully constructed, which means she's going to be there for a while."

On the campaign trail, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, meanwhile, suggested that she was the victim of yet another political witch hunt over Benghazi. She vowed to fight efforts to discredit her role as secretary of state, the National Journal noted.

"Now I'm in their crosshairs again," Clinton said. "It's not about Benghazi. You know what? It's not about emails or servers, either. It's about politics."

In her remark, the 67-year-old was referencing the growing controversy over her use of a private email server to conduct government business, scrutiny over which once again increased last week after it was revealed that some messages had been marked "Top Secret" -- a level of classification that indicates disclosure would "cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security."

Questions about her communication habits, however, will only be part of the October hearings insofar as they relate to the committee's task -- finding out what Clinton knew prior to the fatal Sept. 11, 2012, terror attacks on the U.S. outpost -- Gowdy told Fox News.