It's all falling apart for Republicans. Republicans really, really find themselves screwed this week and they're getting exactly what they deserve. Here's the second admittance in just a few days by a Conservative Republican that the "House Select Committee On Benghazi" is a total fraud, existing for no other reason to smear Hillary Clinton and drive down her poll numbers and trustworthiness.
First Kevin McCarthy "accidentally" told the truth about the investigation of Benghazi and Hillary Clinton during a FOX Nutwork interview. Now for the second time in a week, another Conservative Republican, Major Bradley Podliska, who worked as a staffer on the committee has stepped forward to reveal that the committee has been a sham all along, costing Americans millions of wasted dollars on a politically motivated witch hunt.
Major Podliska, a major in the Air Force Reserve and a lifelong Republican, holds a doctorate in political science from Texas A & M University and spent more than 15 years working at a federal defense agency, as an intelligence analyst for much of that time.
*UPDATE: Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, reportedly declined to appear on CNN's "State of the Union" program Sunday to address allegations made by an ex-staffer of the committee.
The staffer, Bradley Podliska, who was an investigator on the committee for 10 months, told news outlets Saturday that he planned to file a federal lawsuit against the committee for wrongful termination.
Podliska said that he was terminated, in part, for refusing to focus his investigation on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"What happened was wrong," he told CNN.
"I'm scared. I'm nervous. I know that this is, you know, I'm going up against powerful people in Washington," he added. "But at the end of the day I need to live with myself. I told my wife, I will view myself as a coward if I don't do the right thing here."
Major Bradley Podliska's exclusive TV interview with CNN will air Sunday at 9 a.m. on CNN's "State of the Union."
Washington (CNN)A former investigator with the House Select Committee on Benghazi is accusing the Republican-led panel of carrying out a politically motivated investigation targeting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton instead of the thorough and objective fact-finding mission it was set up to pursue.
Major Bradley Podliska, an intelligence officer in the Air Force Reserve who describes himself as a conservative Republican, told CNN that the committee trained its sights almost exclusively on Clinton after the revelation last March that she used a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. That new focus flipped a broad-based probe of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, into what Podliska described as "a partisan investigation."
Podliska, who was fired after nearly 10 months as an investigator for the Republican majority, is now preparing to file a lawsuit against the select committee next month, alleging that he lost his job in part because he resisted pressure to focus his investigative efforts solely on the State Department and Clinton's role surrounding the Benghazi attack. He also alleges he was fired because he took leave from the committee to fulfill his military service obligations, which would be an unlawful firing.
"I knew that we needed to get to the truth to the victims' families. And the victims' families, they deserve the truth -- whether or not Hillary Clinton was involved, whether or not other individuals were involved," he told CNN in an exclusive TV interview that will air Sunday on "State of the Union." "The victims' families are not going to get the truth and that's the most unfortunate thing about this."
Podliska told CNN that the committee, which has spent $4.6 million so far and is chaired by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, pulled resources away from probes of other individuals and agencies to focus almost exclusively on Clinton and the State Department she helmed for four years. Clinton will testify before the committee for the first time October 22 and the committee is set to release the findings of its investigation next year, in the heat of the presidential race.
Podliska alleges that the committee's staff director told him he was fired for three reasons: using work email to send a social invitation to colleagues, assigning an "unauthorized project" to an intern and allegedly putting classified information on an unclassified system. Podliska, an intelligence officer who was hired for his expertise with the intelligence community, strongly denies the latter. He also disputes the legitimacy of the other two reasons cited to him by the committee, in particular assigning any "unauthorized projects" to interns.
A commitee spokesperson "vigorously" denied Podliska's allegations about why he was fired and the objectivity of the committee's investigation.
http://www.cnn.com/...
This on top of Kevin McCarthy's accidental OOOPs!
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s upcoming appearance before the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi was supposed to be a crucible: a chance for Republicans to prosecute the former secretary of state for her handling of the 2012 terrorist attacks that killed four Americans as well as for her use of a private e-mail server.
Instead, it may have turned into a political gift for Clinton following this week’s suggestion by the likely next House speaker, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), that the taxpayer-funded Benghazi investigation was politically motivated. Clinton’s allies say his comments will help recast Clinton’s scheduled Oct. 22 hearing as a partisan inquisition rather than a fact-finding mission about the attacks in Libya.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/...
It's time for Democrats to demand an end to the Select Committee and an end to the malicious and political prosecution of Hillary Clinton:
Now, multiple members of the panel want the committee closed.
“I believe it is time to end this investigation,” committee member Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
She also called for McCarthy, committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to “apologize” for “abusing the memories” of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the three other Americans killed during the attack on a U.S. compound in the Libyan city in 2012.
“The decent thing to do is to wrap up the committee’s work as soon as possible,” said Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), another member of the committee and a 2016 Senate candidate. “[T]he majority leader’s partisan disclosure breaks the promise we made to the victims’ families to make sure a tragedy of this magnitude never happens again.”
http://thehill.com/...
Republicans need to apologize to the country and to Hillary Clinton for malicious character assassination and for wasting the "People's" time, money and resources in their futile attempt to recapture the White House. Now, of course we know they will never do that because Republicans know no shame, but you can write your congressman and senator and demand an end to this Republican sham. Ending the sham "investigation," in and of itself, would be a slap in the face to the egregious Republicans.