Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Gowdy Accuses Dem Counterpart of Blocking Benghazi Investigation

Representative Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.), the chairman of the special panel investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, voiced a new level of frustration with his Democratic counterpart today. Gowdy accused Representative Elijah Cummings of helping the Obama administration to hide Benghazi records. 

“Worse than inaction, you have enabled this failure to produce and contributed to a culture of intentional non-compliance and correspondingly incomplete public record [sic],” he wrote in a biting letter to the Maryland Democrat that accompanied the release of longtime Clinton loyalist Sidney Blumenthal’s emails to Hillary Clinton.

The letter marks a departure from the conciliatory tone that Republicans adopted with respect to Cummings after being embarrassed by the public deterioration of his relationship with then-House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa. Gowdy and Issa’s successor, Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz took the helm of their respective committees while promising to work closely with Cummings. 

Months later, Gowdy is running into the same problems that Issa faced. RELATED: Blumenthal’s E-mail to Hillary on Spinning Qaddafi’s Fall Cummings called for Gowdy to release the transcript of Sidney Blumenthal’s private testimony before the committee. Gowdy refused, citing the same concern that the transcript would tip off future witnesses “to lines of inquiry best not made public,” 

just as Issa had before him. “Your stated support of transparency has not been reinforced by your actions and has done nothing to spur the State Department to action so that we may complete the essential tasks we have been assigned,” Gowdy wrote. “If you are genuinely interested in helping accelerate the pace with which our Committee discharges its responsibilities, call President Obama or Secretary Kerry and ask for the complete, timely production of relevant documents. The failure to do so may allow one to conclude your call for transparency is more of a talking point than a committed principle.”

Via: National Review


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