Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Wednesday urged the Department of Justice to investigate last year’s efforts by the White House to convince Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) to abandon his Senate campaign against Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA).
In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Steele wrote that the public had “heard several different versions of whether or not Congressman Joe Sestak was offered a job or appointment if he were to forgo his campaign for the United States Senate,” CNN reported.
This isn’t the first time a Republican politician has asked the Justice Department to investigate the matter. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) urged the Attorney General to appoint a special counsel to look into Sestak’s claim, but DOJ declined to do so.
Steele’s letter to Holder was an attempt to breathe new life into an episode which was embarrassing for the Obama administration. A formal DOJ investigation, wrote Steele, is the “only way to get to the bottom of this.”
Last week, former President Bill Clinton denied that he tried to convince Sestak to drop out of the Democratic primary at the request of the White House. His account appeared to contradict the White House account of their interactions with Clinton. The results of that internal investigation were released in a memo from the White House counsel in May.
Steele’s letter is embedded below.
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