Poetry’s loss…

is the State Department’s gain.

Raymond Maxwell (photo at left) was one of three Deputy Assistant Secretaries of State placed on administrative leave as a result of the fallout from the Benghazi scandal. (A total of four State Department officers had been placed on leave.) The removals followed the findings of the Accountability Review Board convened by Hillary Clinton in the wake of the terrorist attack on our men in Benghazi. Paul wrote about the ARB findings here.

It turns out that the ARB conducted a phony baloney investigation leading to phony baloney findings to protect Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in their phony baloney jobs. I believe that the ARB never got around to interviewing the four employees it found at fault in connection with the Benghazi assault. It certainly never got around to checking in with Mr. Maxwelll. The unclassified version of the ARB report is posted online here.

Mr. Maxwell is a former naval officer who describes himself as a “shameless bibliophile.” He eloquently decried his treatment by the State Department in the poem “Invitation,” which we posted here. His poem suggested that he was the victim of a lynching by the Queen’s henchmen. Mr. Maxwell also decried his treatment in prose to Josh Rogin, characterizing himself as a scapegoat. He told Rogin: “I had no involvement to any degree with decisions on security and the funding of security at our diplomatic mission in Benghazi.”

Both in poetry and in prose Mr. Maxwell had a point. Indeed, he had several of them. His interview with Rogin reveals his treatment to have been something of an outrage.

It also reveals that the Queen’s Most Important Henchman was Cheryl Mills. Mills is an old Clinton hand, adept in the arts of coverup and scandal management. She harks back to Monica and impeachment. As Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, she put her experience to use acting as consigliere to bully subordinates and keep the lid on the Benghazi disgraces.

Yesterday Secretary Kerry reinstated all four of the State Department employees placed on administrative leave after the ARB investigation. He didn’t absolve them of responsibility, but the action appears to vindicate Mr. Maxwell’s protestations of mistreatment. The four officers will return to work Tuesday, although they will have new assignments rather than go back to their old jobs.

Josh Rogin broke the story for the Daily Beast here. The Washington Times reports the story here and the Washington Post here. David Martosko reports on the story for London’s Daily Mail here. Seth Mandel comments here and DiploPundit here.

In the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi assault the Obama administration brought us the phony baloney talking points. Hillary Clinton and her “henchmen” brought us the phony baloney ARB and the phony baloney discipline. Our phony baloney president is phoning it in. Only the enormity is genuine.

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