The news that David Petraeus may face an indictment for leaking classified information to a woman with whom he was having an affair appears to have rekindled a right-wing conspiracy theory that Petraeus actually stepped down from his post as CIA director in order to conceal the truth about Benghazi.
This line of argument wasn’t exactly helped by the fact that Petraeus said Hillary Clinton would “make a tremendous president” and commended her “extraordinarily resolute, determined and controlled” response to the Benghazi attacks.
Or was it?
According to Louie Gohmert, in a speech on the House floor today, Petraeus is only acting as a “good soldier” because he is being blackmailed by the Obama administration.
“This administration knows that General Petraeus has information that would virtually destroy any credibility that the administration might still have nationally and internationally, so what else would this administration do but leave over his head for a year and a half the threat, ‘We’re going to prosecute you so you better keep your mouth shut,’” the Texas Republican said.
“So if you wonder why General Petraeus has not come out in the last year in a half and said, ‘No those weren’t our talking points, somebody that created them needs to be prosecuted, it was a fraud on the American people,’” he continued. “He’s not going to say that, he’s got this administration hanging a prosecution over his head. What do you expect? I doubt he’ll ever be able to say it without worrying about something over his shoulder coming on after him. So here he is, he’s been defensive of the administration, he’s been a good solider, said what he’s wanted them to say, he hasn’t told all he could say and they’re going to make sure he doesn’t or if he does, he pays a heavy criminal price.”
Essentially, according to Gohmert, if Petraeus says that the Obama administration didn’t do anything wrong in connection with Benghazi, that is proof that the administration did do something wrong. The congressman thinks that by not substantiating his Benghazi conspiracy theories, Petraeus has effectively verified them.
