A former Republican staffer on the House Select Committee on Benghazi is reportedly suing the panel and its chairman, South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy, for what the fired investigator claims is character defamation.
The lawsuit from Air Force Reserve Maj. Bradley Podliska, first reported by
MSNBC Monday, follows his earlier claim the committee turned its probe into a
"partisan investigation" by focusing on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In the suit, the intelligence officer accuses the panel and Gowdy of defaming his character in the course of rebutting his allegations; Gowdy has said
Podliska was terminated, in part, for mishandling classified information.
Allegations of such a "serious crime" have "ended the careers of many professionals in national security-related industries," Podliska says in his suit, MSNBC reports.
Further, Podliska's suit claims the charge was false because the information Podliska handled was drawn entirely from "sources from the Internet," and that the committee staffer who made the allegation later admitted the material "was not classified." The committee has not withdrawn the allegation, MSNBC reports.
The committee is tasked with investigating the circumstances around the 2012 terror attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, which left four Americans dead including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
Podliska is not asking for money in his suit, but wants the court to declare that Gowdy's narrative was false and barring him from repeating it, MSNBC reports.
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