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Pickering: Assertions of Benghazi Coverup Are 'Fiction' (VIDEO)

Nicholas Kralev
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Author and International Affairs Expert

Author and International Affairs Expert
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WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 23: Ambassador Thomas Pickering participates in a panel discussion about the Muslim experience in America at the Washington National Cathedral October 23, 2012 in Washington, DC. A former ambassador to Russia, Jordan, India, Nigeria and Israel, Pickering will lead a State Department panel tasked with investigating the attacks in Libya in September that killed four Americans. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 23: Ambassador Thomas Pickering participates in a panel discussion about the Muslim experience in America at the Washington National Cathedral October 23, 2012 in Washington, DC. A former ambassador to Russia, Jordan, India, Nigeria and Israel, Pickering will lead a State Department panel tasked with investigating the attacks in Libya in September that killed four Americans. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Thomas Pickering, the chairman of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board who is expected to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee in the coming days, has called Republican assertions about a coverup of the events in Benghazi by the Obama administration "creative fiction."

In the premiere episode of my weekly program on diplomacy and global affairs, "Conversations with Nicholas Kralev," Pickering also says that it's "not relevant at all" whether there was a protest on the day of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. compound in the Libyan city, where four Americans were killed.

Pickering, a retired career diplomat and former undersecretary of state, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen led the State Department investigation into the attack. Pickering is also expected to meet with the committee chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, behind closed doors.

The full episode is below.

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