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Republican Chairman Of Benghazi Committee Caught Making Bogus Accusation Against Hillary Clinton

CREDIT: AP PHOTO/SUSAN WALSH
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/SUSAN WALSH

Trey Gowdy, the chair of the Select Committee on Benghazi, leveled a very serious charge against Hillary Clinton in an October 7 letter. Gowdy asserted that Hillary Clinton disclosed the name of CIA source in an email sent from her private server. Gowdy wrote that the information was “some of the most protected information in our intelligence community, the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but human lives.”

The Washington Examiner covered the story with this headline: “Clinton burns CIA Libya contact.”

This does not appear to be true.

A letter from Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, reveals that the CIA reviewed the email in question and found that the information in question was not classified.

Cummings said that Gowdy’s accusation was “irresponsible” and suggested he owes “an immediate apology” to Hillary Clinton.

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In response, Gowdy acknowledged the CIA’s view but said that “the name of the alleged source was redacted from the material cleared for public release by someone in the Executive Branch.” Cummings explained that the name was redacted “not for classification reasons, but to protect the individual’s privacy and avoid bringing additional undue attention to this person.”

The dustup comes on the heels of a number of embarrassing revelations from the Benghazi committee. Republican Major Leader Kevin McCarthy bragged that the committee had successfully driven down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. Another Republican Congressman, Mark Hanna, said the committee was “designed to go after” Clinton.

Clinton is scheduled to testify in front of the committee this week.