article_snippet: Raymond Maxwell was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs when al-Qaeda-linked militants stormed a US diplomatic facility in the 2012 Benghazi, Libya terror attack and killed four Americans .
article_snippet: Maxwell claimed Maxwell was scapegoated for objecting to the secret boiler-room operation, which Maxwell said was organized in order to keep damning documents from the prying eyes of an internal Accountability Review Board.
article_snippet: I was not invited to that after-hours endeavor, but I heard about it and decided to check it out on a Sunday afternoon,' Maxwell said.
article_snippet: Inside, says Maxwell, employees – including an employee who reported to Maxwell – were busily covering up information that suggested higher-ups were responsible for the lax security at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
article_snippet: Maxwell called the review board investigation 'at best a shoddily executed attempt at damage control, both in Foggy Bottom and on Capitol Hill.'
article_snippet: Maxwell was one of four officials officially saddled with the blame.
article_snippet: Maxwell was later cleared of wrongdoing.
article_snippet: Maxwell was, however, placed on indefinite leave, with pay, while the State Department investigated.
article_snippet: Struggling to clear Maxwell name, Maxwell met with an agency ombudsman who Maxwell says told Maxwell, 'You are taking this all too personally, Raymond. ...
article_snippet: Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, whose organization has dented the Obama administration's Benghazi armor with a series of Freedom Of Information Act lawsuits, told MailOnline that 'Maxwell’s disclosures are no surprise to those of us who know the Clintons' penchant for illicit secrecy.' '
article_snippet: In May 2013 The Daily Beast interviewed American Foreign Service Association president Susan Johnson, who said disciplinary action meted out to diplomats like Maxwell creates 'a feeling that foreign-service officers often end up as scapegoats when scandals rise to congressional or public attention.'