Behind the scenes glimpse of Darrell Issa
drafting his original Bardella statement
Darrell Issa on Mar. 1
explaining his decision to fire press aide Kurt Badella:
While our review of allegations raised by Politico is not yet complete, it has become clear that the committee’s Deputy Communications Director Kurt Bardella did share reporter e-mail correspondence with New York Times journalist Mark Leibovich for a book project. Though limited, these actions were highly inappropriate, a basic breach of trust with the reporters it was his job to assist, and inconsistent with established communications office policies. As a consequence, his employment has been terminated. [...] I intend to finish our review and rebuild any broken trust with the journalists who cover the important work of our committee.
Flash forward five short months:
Now Issa has quietly rehired Bardella, albeit into a different role.
Fishbowl DC reported this morning that Bardella will resume working for Issa, and now a spokesman for Issa, Frederick Hill, confirms in an email that the report is accurate:
Kurt Bardella has accepted a position as a Professional Staff Member with the Oversight Committee. He will work under the committee’s General Counsel and not as a spokesman or taking media inquiries.
So apparently behaving in a "highly inappropriate" fashion constituting "a basic breach of trust" with the people he was supposed to have served qualifies him to work for the General Counsel of the House Government Affairs committee.
And they wonder why people hate Congress.