GOP Rep: Benghazi Committee Ex-Staffer Just Had A Disagreement With Investigators

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Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) brushed off allegations Sunday that a former staffer on the Benghazi Committee was fired in part for refusing to focus his investigation on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

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.

Labrador said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” to not “mix up” Podliska’s words.

“Let’s be clear what he said. He said the investigation turned political according to his opinion,” Labrador said. “He just had a disagreement with the people who are doing the investigation.”

“They asked questions about what Hillary Clinton did. They asked her for her emails,” Labrador continued. “She wouldn’t deliver the e-mails and they didn’t know why she didn’t deliver the emails. They didn’t know if there was a smoking gun. They turned their attention to that.”

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  1. Avatar for lew lew says:

    Riiiiight. It was only political because the staffer thought it was.

    Mr. Labrador, I think you spent way too much time on the roof of the Romney’s station wagon.

  2. This is a real quandary for the GOP. If they admit they were targeting Sec. Clinton, they lose some Democratic and Independent votes. If they contend they were conducting the Benghazi hearings in a fair and impartial manner. they lose their Republican base.

  3. CNN had Tom Cole, R, and Raul Labrador, R, on hand to give both sides of the debate. They had asked Gowdy to come on but he declined. No word on whether they even asked the Ranking Member or ANY Ds to weigh in.

  4. From CNN:

    He said half the staff was “surfing the Web all day long” and said “there was plenty of drinking during the work day.”

    And while he was reprimanded for sharing an invitation to an event with his colleagues via work email, he said a group of staffers had set up a “gun buying club” for “chrome-plated, monogrammed Tiffany-style Glock nine millimeters” and that staffers would spend “hours at a time” designing the guns.

    Likely, they are using government owned computers. Should be easy to check that accusation out. Don’t hold your breath waiting for it though.

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