Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Former Benghazi House Committee investigator charges Chairman Trey Gowdy with releasing confidential information. Dammit! Where's the butter for my popcorn?

Courtesy of MSNBC: 

The legal battle between the House Benghazi Committee and its former investigator, Todd Podliska, escalated Monday afternoon, when Podliska’s lawyers alleged that Chairman Trey Gowdy violated government confidentiality rules and federal law in responding to allegations made by Podliska. 

“Both Representative Gowdy and the committee have clearly violated terms of the confidentiality agreement and the Congressional Accountability Act,” said Peter Romer-Friedman, one of Podliska’s attorneys, to MSNBC on Monday afternoon. 

The lawyers allege that Gowdy and the committee improperly released confidential information regarding an employment dispute with Podliska, in an effort to discredit him. 

This is what Gowdy said that upset the investigator so much:

Shortly after Mr. Podliska appeared in an interview Sunday with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mr. Gowdy released a statement denying what he described as “sensationalist and fabulist claims,” adding that Mr. Podliska has “demanded money” from the committee. 

“One month ago, this staffer had a chance to bare his soul, and raise his claim this Committee was focused on Secretary Clinton in a legal document, not an interview, and he did not do it,” said Mr. Gowdy, South Carolina Republican. “Nor did he mention Secretary Clinton at any time during his counseling for deficient performance, when he was terminated, or via his first lawyer who withdrew from representing him.” 

“In fact, throughout the pendency of an ongoing legal mediation, which is set to conclude October 13, this staffer has not mentioned Secretary Clinton,” Mr. Gowdy said in the statement. “But as this process prepares to wrap, he has demanded money from the Committee, the Committee has refused to pay him, and he has now run to the press with his new salacious allegations about Secretary Clinton.”

Yeah that kind of sounds like they are trying to discredit this guy with confidential information.

This is how a spokesperson for the Benghazi committee responded to the investigator's accusations:    
“The ludicrousness of a former employee who has spread himself across the news media over the weekend complaining about confidentiality ought to be obvious,” a Benghazi Committee spokesperson told NBC News’ Kristen Welker Monday. “The Committee will vigorously defend itself against these and any other false claims and has nothing further to add at this time.”

However a report from the New York Times seems to back up the investigator, and the earlier comments of Kevin McCarthy quite nicely:

Now, 17 months later — longer than the Watergate investigation lasted — interviews with current and former committee staff members as well as internal committee documents reviewed by The New York Times show the extent to which the focus of the committee’s work has shifted from the circumstances surrounding the Benghazi attack to the politically charged issue of Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. 

A committee with a stated initial goal of learning more about how four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, were killed in Libya has created a political whirlwind in Washington, affecting not only Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, but now also the race for House speaker. Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to testify in front of the committee on Oct. 22. 

The committee has conducted only one of a dozen interviews that Mr. Gowdy said in February he planned to hold with prominent intelligence, Defense Department and White House officials, and it has held none of the nine public hearings — with titles such as “Why Were We in Libya?” — that internal documents show have been proposed. 

At the same time, the committee has added at least 18 current and former State Department officials to its roster of witnesses, including three speechwriters and an information technology specialist who maintained Mrs. Clinton’s private email server.  

It appears to me as if this whole committee is about to blow apart at the seams, and their partisan agenda has already been revealed for all to see.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, I see no need for Hillary Clinton to lend this witch hunt any credibility by showing up to testify this month.

If she refuses I think the whole thing will be disbanded before November.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:25 AM

    Unless the hearings are public, she should refuse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:59 AM

      If they are public, it will be an excellent chance for her to embarrass her opponents by calling attention to the stupidity of the entire farce.

      Delete
    2. Leland10:08 AM

      7:59, they have to let her speak in order to have that happen. The repube committee members are quite adept at interrupting and trying to channel the hearing to directions other than those she would be strong in.

      Of course, that, too, would work against them for those with half a brain, but I personally feel they don't HAVE half a brain, they probably would fail to see that.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous4:30 AM

    Hw many members of the Bush administration ignored subpoenas? Rove did, he is such an arrogant SOB. Then one of the lawyers had a memory lapse, could not remember a thing. Hillary has suffered enough, drop this whole farce.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:47 AM

    Oooh.... pass the popcorn! My jury is still out on this since Podliska is a right wing asshole himself. He's just madder at the committee, for personal reasons, than he is at Hillary. But for now, he's holding the committee up to some deliciously schadenfreude-ish scrutiny, so on second thought I'll get my own popcorn. This is going to take a LOT.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous6:09 AM

    Gowdy is quite the "gaudy" eraser-head!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Never forget that it was over a year before an investigation was begun about the 911 catastrophe. Only when the families insisted did it ever so slowly begin. Talk about a debacle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:35 AM

      Don't get me started on 9/11 and the government!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:42 AM

      You mean the hearings where Bush testified with Uncle Dick next to him, behind closed doors, with no recordings or notes allowed.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous6:28 AM

    I have noticed that Hillary is using Palinesque motions and body language in her speeches. Scary!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous6:49 AM

    I think she should testify. In her prepared remarks. She should point out how the investigation has gone off the rails, ask why they haven't called witnesses who could testify on the actual Benghazi incident, and bring up the two hundred million dollars the Republicans cut for embassy security around the world. And when the Pubs start bloviating, she should ask them if they have an actual question. But then the msm will go after her for being mean and combative, although they love it when Trump and Christie act like schoolyard bullies.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous9:56 AM

    He wants a prayer, I'll give him one.

    Oh Lord, we humbly ask you to cast your gaze on the leaders of the Republican Party of the USA.
    We beseech you oh Lord to intervene in them, as they are causing great suffering and hardship throughout the world.
    Scourge them oh Lord, that they may know the full fury of your divine wrath.
    Chastise them, cast them out, make known their abominations to all the nations that they will fear the Lord!
    Bring unto them the suffering the suffering they have brought unto others.
    Show them their error in worshipping Mammon instead of the one true God!
    Cast down their idols on Wall Street and place fear into their hearts that they may know God!

    Courtesy of Paul Davis' facebook comment regarding Texas Rep. Bill Flores request that the republican congress all pray for each other.
    66gardeners

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous10:16 AM

    If we all spend enough time on our knees praying for each other," Rep Bill Flores wrote, "we can heal our divisions and truly work together to restore America to the 'Shining City on a Hill' that Reagan frequently challenged us to become."

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous10:21 AM

    For your entertainment...

    Trump to live-tweet dem debate

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous4:11 PM

    Hillary has much bigger problems than Benghazi.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:42 PM

      @4:11 PM Who are you, a C.I.A. Agent? You have much bigger problems than the Clintons, Troll. No retort some wild juvenile response, kid.

      Delete

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