The silence from the Obama administration on the status of the investigation into former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus is "perplexing and suspicious," the top Republican on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee said.
In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz urged the Justice Department to move forward with the investigation in an "expeditious and prudent manner," saying the government has failed to provide follow-up information in the three months since a Judiciary Committee hearing on the matter.
On Fox News' "The Real Story" on Wednesday, Chaffetz said the open investigation could be obstructing investigations into the Benghazi terrorist attack, as Petraeus' investigation shields him from providing testimony about what the agency and the State Department were doing in eastern Libya in the days before the incident.
"It creates all of this hesitation," Chaffetz told Fox News host Gretchen Carlson. "Both the Department of Justice and the administration, as well as Gen. Petraeus himself, and the reluctance [to provide information] to say 'well, I can't give you that information, we can't get into that yet, we can't answer questions yet because there's an ongoing investigation'."
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In his letter, Chaffetz noted the investigation has been ongoing for two years and asked specifically whether it was still ongoing, and if so, what matters were still being investigated, and when the probe would be concluded.
Questions have been raised about the timing and reasons behind Petraeus' resignation, just three days after the president's re-election in 2012.
Petraeus cited an extra-marital affair for why he stepped down, but
some have suggested that the timing was designed to protect the president in the run-up to his re-election, and may have also been triggered by an
FBI investigation into whether he compromised classified information.
The Justice Department did not respond to specific questions from Fox News but said it was reviewing Chaffetz's letter and could not comment further on the ongoing investigation into the general's conduct.
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