Ex-Benghazi investigator says he was fired for resisting panel’s focus on Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON – A former investigator with the Republican-led congressional committee examining the attacks in Benghazi in 2012 says he was fired after resisting pressure to narrowly focus his investigative work on Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Maj. Bradley Podliska, who describes himself as a conservative Republican, told CNN that in March the panel abandoned its broader investigation of the events that led to the deaths in Benghazi, Libya, of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, to focus instead on Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.

He said that by the time he was dismissed, the work of the House select committee on Benghazi had become “a partisan investigation.”

The intelligence officer in the Air Force Reserve is planning to file a wrongful-termination suit in federal court next month, as first reported by CNN and The New York Times. He said he was fired for refusing to go along with the new direction of the committee’s work, as well as for taking leave to meet his military service requirements.

Democrats have long said that the investigation into the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi was driven by politics.

The committee forcefully denied those allegations. It said in a statement that Podliska never raised such concerns while with the panel, and that he himself had inappropriately used committee resources to create a PowerPoint “hit piece” on members of the Obama administration, including Clinton.

Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, is set to testify for the committee Oct. 22. Democrats have described the inquiry as a partisan witch hunt and a waste of taxpayer money.

Podliska told CNN he does not support Clinton and will support whoever wins the GOP nomination. He said, “The victims’ families, they deserve the truth – whether or not Hillary Clinton was involved, whether or not other individuals were involved.”

Podliska said there was an “Animal House” atmosphere at the committee, but he was not part of it.

He described to CNN an office environment in which employees spent their days Web surfing and sometimes drinking at work.