A former member of the House committee tasked with investigating the Benghazi attacks has quietly dialed back his lawsuit alleging he was fired for refusing to go along with a politically-motivated investigation of Hillary Clinton.
Five months after Air Force Reserve major Bradley Podliska filed his suit, it no longer contains any mentions of the Democratic presidential frontrunner, according to a Thursday report from Politico.
Podliska’s attorneys filed an amendment in late February to remove the claim that he was axed from the House Select Committee on Benghazi because he objected to the committee’s increasing focus on Clinton’s tenure at the State Department.
Asked for comment by Politico, Podliska’s attorneys did not explain why the claims were amended, but said the matter remains in “active litigation.”
The House Benghazi committee declined to comment to Politico on this latest development. But the panel said in a statement when the lawsuit was initially announced that it “vigorously denies” Podliska’s original claims.
Podliska announced the wrongful termination suit on CNN in October 2015, claiming he was instructed to focus the investigation on Clinton rather than security measures in place at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya.
His claims seemed to lend credence to what Clinton’s backers had contended for months: that the House committee was a partisan witch hunt aimed at crippling Clinton’s presidential prospects.
The lawsuit came at a politically sensitive time for the Benghazi committee. Clinton was set to testify about the 2012 attacks that left four Americans dead before the committee less than two weeks later. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also boasted days earlier on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show that the Benghazi probe hurt Clinton’s poll numbers, a sound bite that fueled Democrats’ attacks on the panel for months.
