Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House committee on Benghazi, reacted to claims by Bradley Podliska, investigator and Air Force Reserves officer, that the committee was engaging in a partisan probe with an aim to spoil the image of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton Gowdy, saying that Podliska had never displayed any concern about Clinton or politics.
"Until his Friday conversations with media, this staffer has never mentioned Secretary Clinton as a cause of his termination, and he did not cite Clinton's name in a legally mandated mediation," Gowdy said, according to the Washington Post. "The record makes it clear he himself was focused on Clinton improperly and was instructed to stop, and that issues with his conduct were noted on the record as far back as April."
Gowdy, a Republican, also said that he has never spoken to the ex-staffer personally. "Because I do not know him, and cannot recall ever speaking to him, I can say for certain he was never instructed by me to focus on Clinton, nor would he be a credible person to speak on my behalf," Gowdy said, reports Fox News.
Gowdy also criticized CNN's reporting of Podliska's claims alleging that he was fired because he took leave from the committee to fulfill his military service and because he resisted pressure to focus his investigation solely on Clinton's role in the Benghazi attack.
"Had CNN contacted the Committee regarding its interview with this staffer before it rushed to air his sensationalistic and fabulist claims, it could have fully questioned him about his unsubstantiated claims. But that is the difference between journalism as practiced by CNN, and the fact-centric investigation being conducted by this Committee," Gowdy said in the statement, according to CNN.
CNN for its part, refuted the charges.
Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee for the first time on Oct. 22.
