WND EXCLUSIVE

OBAMA 'INTIMIDATING BENGHAZI WITNESS INTO SILENCE'

Congressman says key general 'on a leash' to keep him quiet

Drew Zahn

The Obama administration has been using General David Petraeus’ legal predicament over an extramarital affair to keep him “on a leash” and prevent him from him from providing “devastating testimony” on Benghazi, charges Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.

“We’re not even getting to the people that really have the most direct information,” Gohmert said in a radio interview Sunday. “Have you not wondered about Petraeus being so silent all this time?”

Gohmert was speaking on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s AM 970 The Answer.

Petraeus was director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, Sept. 11, 2012. The retired four-star general resigned, however, two months later, citing an extramarital affair reportedly discovered through an FBI investigation.

Since then, further investigations by the FBI and Justice Department have alleged Petraeus leaked classified documents to his mistress, prompting a recommendation felony charge be brought against him. So far, however, he has not been formally charged.

Gohmert cited Petraeus’ legal troubles as just the kind of ammunition the White House could use to keep the former CIA director quiet about what really happened in Benghazi and the immediate aftermath, when the administration took public criticism for a series of misleading “talking points” about the attack.

“They’ve got an investigation that has been pending all that time, and it’s something they had known about for nearly a year and perhaps longer about the affair [Petraeus] had been having, but amazingly it doesn’t come up until he is in a position to say exactly where the talking points came from and how they were changed by the White House or someone,” Gohmert said. “He could have given very devastating testimony, and yet they’ve kept him on a leash and he’s not come out and blasted the White House when we found out that those were not the talking points that came from the CIA.”

This was not the first time Gohmert raised questions about the administration’s handling of the Petraeus affair.

During remarks on the House floor earlier this month, Gohmert implied the administration was using the case to silence Petraeus on Benghazi.

“This administration knows that General Petraeus has information that would virtually destroy any credibility that the administration might still have nationally and internationally,” Gohmert said. “So what else would this administration do but leave over his head for over a year and a half the threat, ‘We’re going to prosecute you, so you’d better keep your mouth shut’?”

He added, “That’s where we are now in America. It may have been the kind of administration Richard Nixon dreamed of, but he knew he could never get there.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/obama-intimidating-benghazi-witness-into-silence/#vYk2ZBUc9RdIvuw8.99