There were no-holds-barred when Republicans were going after Hillary Clinton over Benghazi. Those same Republicans are now trying to impede the efforts to investigate Donald Trump.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) reportedly committed high crimes while serving as the chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Now he is trying to thwart Congressional efforts to investigate possible crimes by Trump.
Trey Gowdy Works To Shut Obstruct Trump Investigation by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a press release on Wednesday advising that Ranking Member Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) sent a letter to White House Counsel Donald F. McGahn II and the Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization George Sorial, requesting documents relating to Trump’s failure to accurately report debts and payments to his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for silencing women who alleged extramarital affairs before the election.
“Mr. Cohen’s testimony—and documents obtained by the Department of Justice—reveal that these payments were far greater than previously reported and far higher than President Trump listed in his financial disclosure forms pursuant to federal law,” Cummings wrote, adding that: “These payments include a number of increases, bonuses, and anomalies that raise even more questions about the nature and scope of the services President Trump obtained from Mr. Cohen.”
After discussing the background regarding possible violations of the Ethics in Government Act, the press release advised that:
Ranking Member Cummings explained in his letter that he is seeking documents from the White House and the Trump Organization because Chairman Trey Gowdy has refused to investigate this issue.
“On May 4, 2018, I sent a letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy raising serious concerns about President Trump’s failure to report these payments to Mr. Cohen on his first financial disclosure form,” Ranking Member Cummings wrote. “In addition, on August 22, 2018, I sent a follow-up letter asking Chairman Gowdy to hold a hearing to obtain testimony directly from Mr. Cohen after he pleaded guilty and indicated that he was willing to testify before Congress. Chairman Gowdy never responded to these requests, and the Committee took no action, requested no documents, conducted no interviews, obtained no briefings, and held no hearings.”
NEWS ALERT: @RepCummings requests documents on President Trump’s failure to accurately report payments to Michael Cohen https://t.co/lrXN19mIfa
— House OversightDems (@OversightDems) September 12, 2018
Trey Gowdy Reportedly Committed High Crimes While Investigating Benghazi
Gowdy’s work on the Benghazi investigation – which ultimately cleared Hillary Clinton of any wrong-doing stands in stark contrast to his work on the Russia investigation.
The House Select Committee on Benghazi, led by Gowdy, all but exploded in the wake of several stunning revelations in late 2015. The CIA revealed in October 2015 that Trey Gowdy altered documents in an attempt to frame Hillary; and in November 2015, Maj. Bradley Podliska, a former investigator on the Benghazi committee staff, filed a lawsuit against Gowdy seeking damages for defamation.
Salon elaborated on the lawsuit at the time, reporting that, “Maj. Bradley Podliska, a former investigator on the Benghazi committee staff, claimed that he’d been improperly and illegally fired from the committee. He also revealed some damning details about the committee’s work, claiming that it had become singularly focused on Hillary Clinton and the State Department, to the exclusion of other agencies involved in the Benghazi response. According to Podliska, he’d been discriminated against for taking leave to fulfill his duties as an Air Force reservist and for resisting the committee’s intense focus on the State Department.”
It was revealed earlier this month that Gowdy used public funds to make that lawsuit go away.
On Friday 01 December 2017, The Washington Post reported that “Gowdy used $150,000 in taxpayer dollars to settle” that lawsuit.
The Post confirmed the confidential settlement reached between Gowdy and the Benghazi panel and Bradley Podliska after it appeared in a list of settlements released Friday by the congressional Office of Compliance. Gowdy is now the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
In a list provided to the House Committee on Administration, the OOC disclosed it oversaw one $150,000 settlement involving a claim of veteran status discrimination and retaliation in the last five years. Podliska, in addition to claiming he was fired for his refusal to focus on Clinton, alleged retaliation by his supervisors because he took leave to fulfill his obligations as an Air Force reservist.
Then there is Gowdy’s alleged criminal conduct during his Benghazi probe witch-hunt.
As Liberals Unite reported in October 2, 2015: in a bombshell revelation, the Central Intelligence Agency reached out to Democrats serving on the Select Committee on Benghazi to confirm that Chairman Trey Gowdy had altered documents provided to the committee by Hillary Clinton.
On October 7, 2015, Gowdy sent a response to ranking Benghazi committee member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), referring extensively to Sidney Blumenthal, a long-time confidante and adviser to the Clintons, who served as assistant and senior adviser to Bill Clinton from August 1997 until January 2001.
In addition to Sidney Blumenthal’s business interests, Secretary Clinton also apparently received classified information from Blumenthal – information she should have known was classified at the time she received it. In one email, Blumenthal writes “Tyler spoke to a colleague currently at CIA, who told him the agency had been dependent for intelligence from [redacted due to sources and methods].”1 This information, the name of a human source, is some of the most protected information in our intelligence community, the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but also human lives. Armed with that information, Secretary Clinton forwarded the email to a colleague–debunking her claim that she never sent any classified information from her private email address. There may be other instances as well where Secretary Clinton passed on classified information she received from Sidney Blumenthal. [emphasis added]
- However, as Newsweek reported, the CIA informed the House Select Committee on Benghazi that Gowdy’s claims were false: “Indeed, according to committee correspondence reviewed by Newsweek, the CIA did tell the panel on Saturday that it had reviewed 127 emails between Clinton and her close friend and outside adviser, Sidney Blumenthal, and none of it was deemed classified. Additionally, according to Newsweek: “’The CIA reviewed the material in question and informed State that it required no redactions,’ the agency informed Susan Sachsman Grooms, staff director and general counsel for the panel’s Democrats, on October 17.” [emphasis added]
- Cummings sent a letter to Gowdy in October in which he dropped the bomb – accusing Gowdy of altering documents in an effort to frame Clinton: “To further inflate your claim, you placed your own redactions over the name of the individual with the words, ‘redacted due to sources and methods.’ To be clear, these redactions were not made, and these words were not added, by any agency of the federal government responsible for enforcing classification guidelines.” [emphasis added]
- Cummings continued, emphasizing the fact that the CIA had thoroughly debunked Gowdy’s false claims against Clinton: “Contrary to your claims, the CIA yesterday informed both the Republican and Democratic staffs of the Select Committee that they do not consider the information you highlighted in your letter to be classified. Specifically, the CIA confirmed that ‘the State Department consulted with the CIA on this production, the CIA reviewed these documents, and the CIA made no redactions to protect classified information.’” [emphasis added]
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