An anonymous aide for House GOP leadership told the Washington Examiner Monday it believes three family members of the victims of the Benghazi terrorist attack and other conservative movement and military community leaders are being untruthful in their demand for a select committee investigation into Benghazi.
The unidentified aide would work for either Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, or Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, per the Examiner’s identification.
Pat Smith, the mother of murdered Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, the father of murdered security officer Tyrone Woods, along with Smith’s uncle Michael Ingmire, joined scores of conservative movement leaders in demanding Boehner install a select committee.
A bill that would do so is sitting in the House with 179 cosponsors including lead sponsor Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), more than a substantial majority of the House GOP conference. Boehner, Cantor, and McCarthy will not schedule a vote on the matter, despite overwhelming support from the conservative movement, victims’ families, the American people, and the GOP conference.
Instead, an anonymous House GOP leadership aide responded to Monday’s letter, which was exclusively reported by Breitbart News, to the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard by accusing the coalition writing the letter of making false statements in the letter regarding the GOP leadership’s incapacity to lead an investigation into Benghazi.
“These complaints are absurd and factually inaccurate,” the anonymous GOP leadership aide said. “The committees’ efforts are coordinated by a full-time leadership staffer, administration witnesses have testified publicly and privately, and the committees have both professional investigators and subpoena authority.”
Boehner aide Michael Steel added that Boehner wants to still investigate Benghazi. “House Republicans are committed to finding the truth about what happened in Benghazi and why the White House failed to level with the American people,” Steel told Bedard.
Steel has not responded to a series of questions on the matter from Breitbart News, including details on the lone staffer he says House GOP leadership has working to coordinate the investigation among the various committees.
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