Blumenthal claims he copied communication from a former CIA analyst and despite being paid $10,000/month from the Clinton Foundation he claims he was not paid to advise Secretary Clinton.

hillary clinton and sidney blumenthalWASHINGTON DC – Sidney Blumenthal did not write or know the source of any of the Libya intelligence he passed on to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the top Clinton ally told investigators on the House Select Committee on Benghazi Tuesday in a closed-door deposition.

Blumenthal, subpoenaed by the committee, also did not verify any of the intelligence he forwarded to the nation’s top diplomat. Instead, Blumenthal was copying and pasting memos from Tyler Drumheller, a former CIA operative who was looking into a Libya-related business venture, and sending them to Clinton, two people familiar with his testimony told POLITICO.

“One of the folks providing her the largest volume of information was simply and merely a conduit of someone who … may have had business interest in Libya,” said panel Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) at the end of a nearly nine-hour interview. “We have a CIA, so why would you not rely on your own vetted source intelligence agency? In this case, there was no vetting, no analysis of credibility whatsoever.”

Blumenthal, meanwhile, maintained that his practice of forwarding such memos was unsolicited and that he was not being compensated for gathering or passing along the information, according to sources who were in the room. (continue reading)

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