WASHINGTON – The House Benghazi Committee led by Rep. Trey Gowdy is buckling to Democrat and media pressure and backing off from any investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

However, the Committee’s explanation for why it is going weak on the issue does not comport with the facts.

The Committee first showed signs of going weak when it informed Breitbart News that top Clinton aide Huma Abedin would not be asked under oath about the Clinton Foundation, even though Breitbart News reported that Clinton aides were talking about Benghazi with Clinton Foundation staff. Why? The Committee said that questions about the Foundation do not relate to the Committee’s charter. Committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy skipped the Abedin hearing, anyway to hang out at a hotel with police chiefs.

Now, the Committee is backing off from the email scandal so much that it is probably not even going to call a key witness who screened Clinton’s private emails.

“The question becomes: Is it worth the hassle and the drama?” a Republican insider told the Clinton-friendly publication Politico.

The cowardice of the Committee is not just damaging politically for Republicans, who have consistently backed down and been defeated on every major issue in recent years against a Democratic administration that has never once changed its mind about a policy position because it was concerned what Republicans or Fox News would say.

The cowardice completely violates the Committee’s charter.

“The Select Committee is authorized and directed to conduct a full and complete investigation and study and issue a final report of its findings to the House regarding–…3) Internal and public executive branch communications about the attacks on United States facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012;,” according to the Committee’s official mission.

Since it is a matter of public record that Clinton sent an email containing slain Ambassador Chris Stevens’ location on her unsecure private server before terrorists figured out where he was and went and killed him, Clinton’s email issue is certainly germane to the Benghazi investigation. In backing away from it, the Committee will be doing just what Democrats and the media have accused it of doing in other ways–tainting the investigation with political concerns.