House Speaker John Boehner says the special panel his chamber is creating to investigate the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans is a serious probe that won’t be a circus or a sideshow.

The Ohio Republican told reporters Wednesday that the investigation is needed following the recent release of a memo showing what he calls a significant White House role in deciding how officials publicly described that attack.

Boehner says the Obama administration has not told the truth about Benghazi and some other issues. Those include the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups for scrutiny and the Justice Department’s botched Fast and Furious gun-running probe.

He says if the administration is not willing to tell the truth about those incidents, “it must not be very pretty.”

(AP)