Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on Tuesday shot down Fox News and a new book that claims CIA commandos were told not to rescue those at the diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
The congressman suggested that the lawyers for the five commandos who wrote the new account of the Benghazi attack were just trying to make money off of the scandal.
“The lawyers asked that none of their testimony be released until after their book was out and being sold,” he said when asked if his committee tried to intimidate the commandos during its investigation, according to ThinkProgress. “I think you have lawyers who have a financial interest in this certainly making allegations that are far from true.”
In “13 Hours,” the commandos, who were guarding the CIA annex in Benghazi, claim that the base chief told them to “stand down” and refrain from rescuing Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens despite a call for help from a diplomatic mission security officer.
The Intelligence Committee found that nobody gave a “stand down” order, and Rogers, who is retiring after the 2014 elections, reiterated on Fox News that the commander merely paused to gain better knowledge of the situation.
“It was the commander on the ground making the decision. I think it took 23 minutes before they all, including that commander, by the way, got in a car and went over and rescued those individuals,” he said.
Fox News ran a special report on Friday on the book, which makes similar claims to those pushed by the network in 2012.
