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Trey Gowdy Sued: Former Member Of Benghazi Committee Claims He Was Discriminated Against When He Was Fired, Does He Have A Case?

By Louis Babcock
Published on: 23:46 PST, Nov 23, 2015

Trey Gowdy is being sued by Air Force Reserve Major Bradley Podliska. Bradley and his attorney set their claim in a federal court on November 23, 2015, for wrongful termination by Trey Gowdy with regard to Podliska’s job conducting an investigation into what really happened in the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack. The lawsuit can be found here.

Major Bradley Podliska was a member of the House Select Committee that has been investigating what happened in the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. The head of the committee, Trey Gowdy, removed Podliska last month, with Gowdy’s reasoning being “deficient performance” and questions that had arisen about how Podliska had “mishandled classified information.”

Major Podliska tells a different story than Trey Gowdy. Bradley says that he was fired from the Benghazi committee because he wanted to leave the investigation and serve for 39 days with the Air Force Reserves. Reservists have a law that protects them when they leave a job to serve in the reserve branch that the are part of. The law is the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. The USERRA was signed into law in 1994 by Bill Clinton. The law protects members of the military from being discriminated against in their civilian job if they are called to military duty. Podliska’s attorney commented on his client and USERRA.

“In June 2015, Podliska was unlawfully fired by the Benghazi Committee because he sought to exercise his rights under USERRA. This followed months of increasing hostility towards Podliska because he left work to fulfill his military obligations as a reservist. Chairman Gowdy and his Benghazi Committee staffers responded by intentionally defaming Podliska, making numerous false allegations to multiple national news outlet.”

His attorney also states that his clients experienced a hostile work environment when he returned to Trey Gowdy’s committee until he was fired from it. Podliska’s attorney commented further on his clients termination.

“Chairman Gowdy and his Benghazi Committee staffers responded by intentionally defaming Podliska, making numerous false allegations to multiple national news outlet.”

The actual act that led to the firing of the Air Force major was that he allegedly “was unwilling to go along with the hyper-focus” that Trey Gowdy required. Gowdy and the committee specifically was focusing on the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. It is being said that Podliska was fired because he was trying to investigate a different angle “that bore no relationship whatsoever to the committee’s current investigative tone, focus or investigative plan.” The attorney for the major claims that those claims are false.

“The false and defamatory statements were published and broadcast by hundreds of different media outlets and were read and heard by millions of people, and Chairman Gowdy intended for them to be so disseminated”

Jamal Ware disagrees with the claims and the lawsuit. Ware is a communications director for the Benghazi panel and commented on the lawsuit facing Trey Gowdy.

“The committee did not and does not discriminate or retaliate based on military service, military status or any other unlawful factor. We look forward to responding to the allegations in due course and in the appropriate forum. And we are confident that once all the facts are known — should this case be permitted to proceed — we will be fully exonerated.”

Do you think that what Trey Gowdy is being sued for has merit? Does the Air Force major have a case with regard to defamation and discrimination?

[Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

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