Fox Host Revives Attkisson's Repeatedly Debunked Benghazi “Bombshell”

Fox host Martha MacCallum rehashed Benghazi hoaxster Sharyl Attkisson's repeatedly debunked allegation that Hillary Clinton's State Department staff had “sifted through” and removed damaging Benghazi documents before turning them over to investigators, just days after a second witness has allegedly undermined Attkisson's report according to a letter from the ranking Democrat on The House Select Committee on Benghazi. 

In a September 2014 report  for The Daily Signal, Sharyl Attkisson baselessly claimed that Hillary Clinton's State Department staff scrubbed “damaging documents before they were turned over to the Accountability Review Board investigating security lapses surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.” Although Attkisson's report was denied by the State Department and relied solely on speculations from disgruntled former State Department employee Raymond Maxwell, Fox News quickly heralded it as a “bombshell” and “smoking gun.”

A recently published November 2014 letter penned by the ranking Democrat on the House Benghazi Select Committee, Elijah Cummings, further undermined Attkisson's allegations, explaining that a second witness who Raymond Maxwell said could “corroborate his allegations” actually denied them, saying “he was never instructed to flag information in documents that might be unfavorable to the Department.” 

Despite the new developments, Fox News revived the discredited claim on the January 28 edition of America's NewsroomDiscussing the Benghazi Select Committee's third hearing, co-host Martha MacCallum attempted to assuage committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)'s claim that the Obama administration is withholding Benghazi documents, pointing to “the story a while back about documents being sifted through at the State Department over a weekend.” MacCallum also went on to suggest “it could be that some of what you're looking for simply isn't around anymore.”