The creators of a new Hollywood blockbuster about the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack are renewing the politically explosive allegation that commandos called to defend the U.S. compound were told to “stand down” — a claim Democrats say has no basis in fact.

With Michael Bay’s “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” set to premiere Thursday, the five surviving members of the six-man Benghazi security team have blitzed the airwaves to promote the film and renew their assertion that a top CIA officer delayed them from immediately answering State Department distress calls. Three even testified to the same before the House Select Committee on Benghazi last spring, several sources have confirmed to POLITICO.


“There is no sensationalism in that: We were told to ‘stand down,’” said former Special Forces Officer Kris Paronto, one of the CIA contractors who fought that night, in an interview with Politico. “Those words were used verbatim — 100 percent. … If the truth of it affects someone’s political career? Well, I’m sorry. It happens.”

Top Democrats on the Benghazi panel, however, said that’s more movie fantasy than reality.

“If the film portrays them as having ordered a stand-down, it’s clearly at odds with the facts,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), whose district includes Hollywood and who sits on the committee. “If the film portrays those who went to rescue people at the diplomatic facility as doing so in disregard of orders, that’s also plainly at odds with the facts. … It may make for good entertainment; it doesn’t make for a well-informed public.”

Lawmakers have grappled with the question of a stand-down order before, and several bipartisan reports on the attacks have found no evidence of such a command being passed down the chain. Moreover, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the CIA and the Defense Department have long dismissed the idea that anyone would have held back help.

But the renewed allegations have forced lawmakers to wrestle with the issue again, and Republicans in particular may find themselves in an awkward spot. If GOP members of the Benghazi panel dispute Paronto’s assertion, they could look like they’re disparaging Americans who fought and died in service of the country. But if they side with Paronto, investigators would directly contradict some big-name intelligence officials, including former CIA Director David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who say no one was ordered to stand down.

“There are multiple versions out there in the public, and we will ultimately write about this in the final report,” was all Republican Benghazi investigator Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) would say about the matter. The Benghazi panel is conducting its investigation behind closed doors and is expected to release its findings this spring.

In the years since the the 2012 attack, Republicans have pressed for clarity on the stand-down question with some even accusing Clinton of issuing such an order. But more than a half dozen investigations found no evidence that such an order was ever given. Some probes, however, acknowledged a slight delay in responding to the attacks because the CIA base chief, or “Bob” in the movie, was calling local Libyan militias for help in hopes of fortifying the rescue team.

But Paronto and his former teammates dismissed those findings as not credible because they said investigators never interviewed people who were on the ground, including him and his former teammates.

“There are seven reports based off of what happened in Benghazi; I’ve been interviewed for one,” he said. “What kind of credibility is that? How can you get the information without interviewing the guys on the ground?”

That “one” was former House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers’ probe. But even his final report on the matter specifically said there was no stand-down order given. That report divided the GOP. And most of Rogers’ GOP panel members — including Benghazi panel member Pompeo — refused to sign the final document because they felt it did not tell the full story.

“Orders to delay deployment, I think, were evident,” said House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who helped investigate the Benghazi issue on his committee and called Rogers’ findings “shallow and incomplete, at best.”

“I have spent time talking to these gentlemen and I have no reason not to believe them,” Chaffetz continued. “That’s not some ‘Republican myth’ — that’s coming from the mouths of the people who were there.”

Paronto said he and his colleagues who were on the ground were also irate that the Rogers’ report failed to mention their account and their assertion that they believe they could have saved U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack.

Benghazi Democrats interviewed about the movie pointed to findings like those in Rogers’ report to toss out the latest stand-down questions raised on the matter.

“I think all the evidence has been overwhelming that there was no stand-down order — everybody says that,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who serves as ranking member on the Benghazi committee and has read the book “13 hours” but doesn’t subscribe to the stand-down account. “[I]f they tried to allege that, it’s inconsistent with the evidence that’s shown, and people will view that as, perhaps … some exaggeration of certain points to make this [movie] more interesting.”

Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost both of her legs while serving in Iraq, got somewhat heated when asked about the commandos’ assertion.

“Committee, after committee, after committee has found that there was no stand-down order,” she said, noting that Gen. Petraeus a few days earlier testified the same to the Benghazi committee behind closed doors. “[T]hree different committees have looked at this and have never found any evidence of any type of a stand-down order — period. There just wasn’t one. And I would think that if there had been one at any level, after seven or eight committees, we would have found one.”

Paronto and the other rescuers remember it differently, and the movie tells their side of the story. In an interview this week, Paronto recounted the exact timing of the first call for help, hearing gunfire in the distance, and being told by the base chief to wait as they stood outside their compound villa readying two military vehicles. He recounted the calls for help on the radio from State Department diplomats and “an urgency in their voice that I can’t portray because you only hear those kinds of things [when] guys feel like they’re going to lose their lives.”

And when his colleague John “Tig” Tiegen told the base chief the security team was “losing the initiative; we need to go now,” Paronto heard the words “stand down” before the team “bucked” leadership and left on their own accord, he said. (In the movie, the order is depicted as being given from the base chief to Tyrone “Ty” Woods, who died that night, instead of Tiegen, Paronto said, noting that the movie slightly changes the event because the film follows Woods more closely than Tiegen.)

“The words were used,” Paronto said. “I don’t know what to tell you; I don’t know how they can continuously call us liars, which is what they’re doing, in effect.”

Paronto said he doesn’t necessarily believe the “stand down” he heard was nefarious or a command from on high from CIA leaders at headquarters. Rather, he said, the CIA supervisor or base chief was “very risk adverse” and probably did not know what to do.

The base chief, according to GOP sources, has consistently refuted this account, creating a he-said-she-said predicament that pits the lower-level contractors — all ex-SEALs, rangers or military officers — against people at the top.

One Republican source familiar with the ongoing Benghazi probe cautioned that not everyone sees things the same, likening the discrepancy to differing accounts following a car accident. Another suggested that although there may have not been a stand-down order from on high, the delay may have been taken that way.

