Mike Rogers, the former Michigan congressman who chaired the House Intelligence committee for four years, is no longer working on the transition team for President-elect Donald Trump.
“These past six months, it has been an honor to serve as National Security Senior Advisor to the Trump transition team,” said Rogers in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to provide advice and counsel as needed to the incoming Trump administration as they work to make America great again.”
While others are reporting that Rogers was pushed out because of his alliance with ousted transition chief Chris Christie, sources tell THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the Trump transition team grew skittish about Rogers over concerns about the former congressman’s Intelligence committee report on the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. The transition team’s executive committee discussed the 2014 Rogers report, which most of his fellow Republicans on the Intelligence committee did not endorse, on its first conference call on Saturday.
Additionally, other senior Republicans who focus on national security issues raised questions about Rogers with the new transition leader and incoming vice president Mike Pence.
What prompted questions about Rogers and his fitness for the new administration? Many of the CIA officers who survived the Benghazi attack have loudly opposed the Rogers report since it was released, particularly objecting to the report’s claim that no CIA officer on the ground in Benghazi was told to “stand down” from a rescue attempt. Just last week one of those officers, Kris Paronto, tweeted some harsh criticism of Rogers:
https://t.co/t0hnZvzgS9 .. @realDonaldTrump if you want to drain the swamp considering one of its main dwellers is not a good way to start.”
— Kris Paronto (@KrisParonto) November 12, 2016
This snake in the grass #MikeRogers should be nowhere near capital hill ever again @realDonaldTrump .. @13hoursmovie @13hours #Tanto pic.twitter.com/L9KGkQiHhc
— Kris Paronto (@KrisParonto) November 15, 2016
Paronto, along with a number of other CIA officers in Benghazi, supported Trump during the election. Here, for instance, is a photograph of former officer John “Tig” Tiegen at the Trump campaign headquarters on Election Night:
NYC with @GemtechSilencer waiting for an official @realDonaldTrump victory. Polls still open in some states #NeverHillary #VoteTrump pic.twitter.com/szBnjpteO7
— John Tiegen (@JohnTiegen) November 9, 2016
On Thursday’s edition of Special Report on Fox News, host Bret Baier discussed the anger among conservatives over Rogers’s Benghazi investigation and his final report, which claimed to be a “comprehensive” look at the attack. Baier replayed part of a June interview with South Carolina congressman Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the separate Benghazi select committee, who argued that the Rogers investigation failed to interview all the necessary eyewitnesses. Gowdy had also pointed out that two of the Intelligence committee members who were also on the Benghazi select committee did not sign their names to Rogers’s report, although they did sign Gowdy’s.
“Here’s a candidate [Trump] who ran in part on the Benghazi issue. You’ve got the 13 Hours guys that endorsed Donald Trump. And you’ve got a guy running your national security transition that comes under fire from conservatives over Benghazi,” Baier said Thursday.
These concerns regarding Benghazi, sources say, partly prompted Rogers’s removal from the transition team.
