As Rep. Trey Gowdy’s Benghazi Select Committee continues to run up the tab (currently $6.7 million) of the eighth congressional investigation into the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, it has a new and surprising target for its ire.
The Benghazi Select Committee has begun to feud with Judicial Watch, which has attempted to turn the tragedy in Benghazi into its own public relations and fundraising extravaganza.
Judicial Watch, which has attempted to turn the tragedy in Benghazi into its own public relations and fundraising extravaganza and the Benghazi Select Committee have begun to feud over who gets the credit.
The National Review reports:
Republican Committee spokesmen are accusing Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group pursuing a parallel inquiry into the Benghazi attacks, of drafting in the Committee’s investigative wake while claiming credit for some of its most important discoveries. They say they held their tongues after Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch’s president and an erstwhile ally, accused them of “bungling” the investigation in a March interview with the Washington Post. But as the release of the final report nears, GOP lawmakers, led by committee chairman Trey Gowdy, are worried that the group will over-politicize their much-anticipated report. So they’ve opened fire, accusing Judicial Watch of mischaracterizing the facts in a rush to enhance its reputation and boost fundraising.
Judicial Watch has a history of misleading the press and fomenting conspiracy theories that are tailor-made to spread through the conservative media, while the Benghazi Select Committee has a track record of producing embarrassing flubs and not much else.
Each group has a reason to fight for credit. Gowdy will ultimately need to justify his committee’s multimillion-dollar price tag, while Judicial Watch needs to prove success in its Benghazi efforts to justify its own fundraising. Ironically, both of these groups are searching for adulation based on an investigation that has thus far produced only criticism and no meaningful results.
