The Republicans' brazen attempt to use the Select Committee on Benghazi as a political attack machine to manipulate the presidential political process on a scale that dwarfs Watergate continues to unravel. Whistle Blower and former committee staffer Bradley Podliska laid bare the partisan political nature of the Benghazi "investigation".
Fired Benghazi staffer: Committee is out to get Clinton
By Mike Lillis
Bradley Podliska, an Air Force Reserve major and a former staffer on the House Select Committee on Benghazi, claims he was fired from the panel for promoting a broad, objective investigation into the deadly 2012 attack, according to multiple Saturday reports.
He says Republicans on the panel, by contrast, wanted to shift the focus chiefly onto Clinton after reports emerged revealing she'd used a personal email account in her role as secretary of State — allegations the committee vigorously disputes.
"It’s been clear that Secretary Clinton has been the true target of this investigation, and the Republican whistleblower who has come forward only provides further evidence of what has been long evident," Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee and a member of the Benghazi panel, said Saturday in a statement. "It’s time to shut down the Benghazi Select Committee."
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Podliska was "handpicked" by Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), and if his allegations are true, the panel must be shuttered.
"Even though we all knew from the start that Gowdy and the Republicans created the Benghazi Committee to pursue a political witch-hunt, we had to let them prove it to the American people themselves," he said in a statement. "There should no longer be any doubt as to why the committee was created."
Podliska, a self-described conservative Republican, claims he was fired in retaliation for opposing what he described as a shift of committee resources to focus primarily on Clinton following the email revelations, according to the reports.
He's planning to sue the panel over his firing, seeking lost pay and the return of his job.
Sham Investigator Trey Gowdy
Suit Over Firing Exposes Strife Within Benghazi Panel
By NOAM SCHEIBER, ERIC LIPTON and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Major Podliska said that when he returned from active duty in late March, much of the committee staff, which had been investigating leads across numerous agencies, had been redeployed to focus primarily on Mrs. Clinton and the State Department.
Despite the change in focus, Major Podliska continued to work on his examination of the response in Washington to the attack, only to meet escalating resistance from his superiors, according to his complaint. In his view, they felt he was not focusing enough on Mrs. Clinton’s alleged mistakes, a criticism he considered odd given that his findings were far from favorable to her.
“My thing was actually related to Hillary — I just wasn’t all in on Hillary,” he said in the interview. “I was finding other officials at other agencies that bore responsibility for the post-attack piece.”
The Select Committee on Benghazi is now a bigger potential liability for Republicans in congress than it is for Hillary Clinton. Republican majorities in the Senate and House could conceivably be put in jeopardy IF the press follows up on Bradley Podliska's allegations with more supporting evidence and testimonials. This could (and deserves to) turn into a HUGE scandal for Republicans going into the 2016 election year. Add the House Republican leadership train-wreck and the perceptions of Congressional Republicans antics could get much more dismal.