From CNSNews.com:

The White House initially denied to Pennsylvania media Rep. Joe Sestak’s (D-Pa.) claim that the administration had offered him a job in exchange for not running in that state’s U.S. Senate primary against Sen. Arlen Specter (D.-Pa.)–an action that the White House admitted to on Friday with the release of a memorandum by White House Counsel Robert F. Bauer.

Bauer’s May 28 memo, which concedes that the White House did offer Sestak a position to “avoid a decisive Senate primary” against Specter, contradicts comments that an unnamed White House official or officials made to the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia television journalist Larry Kane in February.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, now says the person in the White House who told the media in February that the Sestak job offer did not happen “would have been a liar.”

It was on Feb. 18 when Sestak–now the Democratic Senate nominee after defeating Republican-turned-Democrat Specter in last month’s primary–first told Philadelphia TV news man Kane that the White House had offered him a job to drop his Senate bid.

The next day, Feb. 19, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, “A White House spokesman this morning strongly denied an offer had been made to Sestak. Before the spokesman issued the denial, a senior Pennsylvania Democrat said Sestak’s account was met with anger by White House officials yesterday.”

That same day, Sestak had been interviewed on Fox News and, when asked about the White House offer, said, “I was asked a direct question … and I answered it honestly.”

Then, on Feb. 20, the  Philadelphia Inquirer reported: “A White House official ‘vociferously’ denied his [Sestak’s] account yesterday as Sestak insisted on national television that he had told the truth, but declined for a second day to divulge details.”

On June 1, Larry Kane said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that, after his exchange with Sestak was broadcast, the White House denied to Kane that a job offer had been made to Sestak.

“So the story ran without a reaction from the White House for a lot of hours,” Kane told Hannity. “The next morning, on the bedside at the bed table, the night table, the phone starts gyrating and it’s the White House, and it’s the deputy press secretary who says on background you can say the White House says it’s not true.”

However, the May 28 memo from White House Counsel Robert Bauer tells a different story.

It reads: “Efforts were made in June and July of 2009 to determine whether Congressman Sestak would be interested in service on a presidential or other senior executive branch advisory board, which would avoid a divisive Senate primary, allow him to retain his seat in the House, and provide him with an opportunity for additional service to the public in a high-level advisory capacity for which he was highly qualified.”

“The White House staff did not discuss these options with Congressman Sestak,” the memo states. “The White House Chief of Staff [Rahm Emanuel] enlisted the support of former President Clinton who agreed to raise with Congressman Sestak options of service on a presidential or other senior executive branch advisory board. Congressman Sestak declined the suggested alternatives, remaining committed to his Senate candidacy.”

Last Friday, May 28, Sestak said he thought he was being offered a spot on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. In his conversation with former President Bill Clinton, “I heard presidential board and I think it was intel,” Sestak was quoted as telling reporters.

But as a House member, Sestak could not serve on that board. As the White House Web site says, the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board “consists of not more than 16 members appointed by the President from among individuals who are not employed by the Federal Government.” (Emphasis added.)

A White House spokesman did not respond to questions on Wednesday from CNSNews.com about the apparent contradictions in its statements to the Philadelphia Inquirer vs. the White House counsel’s May 28 memo.

Rep. Issa told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that there is a clear contradiction between what the White House is saying now compared with what the White House officials on background said back in February.

“No question, when the White House now says that it did happen and gives some detail, then the person who said it didn’t happen [in February] would have been a liar,” said Issa. “No question at all.”

The controversy started on Feb. 18, when Sestak appeared on “Larry Kane: Voice of Reason,” a public affairs television program on the Comcast Network in Pennsylvania. Kane asked, “Were you ever offered a federal job to get out of this race?”

“Yes,” said Sestak.

“Was it secretary of the Navy?” Kane asked.

“No comment, though I would never get out for a deal. I’m in this for the Democratic principles,” said Sestak.

“OK,” said Kane. “But there was a job offered to you by the White House?”

“Yes, someone offered–” said Sestak.

“It was big, right?” asked Kane.

“It was — let me not comment on it,” Sestak responded.

Issa and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), respectively the ranking members of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller asking for an investigation into the issue.

The Justice Department, run by Attorney General Eric Holder, has already rejected a request by Issa to name a special prosecutor to look into the matter.

Issa and others contend that a job offered as a quid pro quo to drop out of a Senate race could violate federal statutes concerning bribery and interference with an election.

Issa, Smith, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) sent a letter to White House Counsel Bauer on Wednesday asking for the release of all White House records pertaining to the Sestak offer.

“Rather than definitively resolve this matter, the memorandum had precisely the opposite effect: it appears to catalog a violation of the federal criminal code, the tampering of evidence, witness tampering and evasion of the legal process,” the three Republican congressmen wrote.

“The Sestak matter represents a chance for this White House to live up to the high standard of transparency and accountability they set for themselves,” the letter states. “In light of the President’s oft-stated goal of promoting unprecedented levels of openness and transparency, we believe that the American people are entitled to review the substance of your investigation of this matter themselves. If the American people are to have any meaningful degree of confidence in the legitimacy of the conclusions drawn in the Sestak memorandum, they must have access to the underlying information.”

On Feb. 23, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, “One last thing, I’m sorry. Congressman Joe Sestak last week said that the White House offered him a high-ranking job in the administration to not run against Arlen Specter. Do you guys have any comment on that?”

Gibbs said, “I was traveling for a couple of days, as you know. I have seen some stuff that he said, but I have not looked into this.”

Another reporter asked Gibbs, “I want to follow-up on Jake’s (ABC News) question, because on Friday, unnamed officials of this building did vociferously deny Rep. Sestak’s assessment that he had been offered a job. And I just want to say, when you said, ‘I haven’t looked at this,’ I want to make sure you’re not contradicting that denial.”

Gibbs said, “I just–because I was on the road and dealing with different things on the road, I’ve not had a chance to delve into this.”

The reporter then asked, “Would there be anything inappropriate about a discussion like that?”

Gibbs said, “Let me have somebody look into–like I said, I was on the road and I don’t really have a whole lot of knowledge on this.”

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