Rep. Elijah Cummings, the leading Democrat on the House Select Committee on Benghazi, accused someone on the committee of leaking inaccurate information to a reporter in an effort to "further a political attack against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

"The anonymous source for this story appears to have been attempting to support a line of political attack that many Republicans have been making recently against Secretary Clinton, Sidney Blumenthal, Media Matters, and the White House," Cummings wrote about a Politico article in a letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy on Monday.

The Maryland Democrat noted discrepancies in the dates and order of emails in an exchange between Clinton, her spokesman Philippe Reines, and former aide Sidney Blumenthal that was quoted in the story before they were released.

The reporter, Rachel Bade, attributed the information to "a source who has reviewed the email exchange."

Cummings said the misleading characterization of the emails was part of a "reckless pattern of selective Republican leaks."

In the story, Bade said Clinton had agreed to push to the White House posts to the Media Matters website sent by Blumenthal on Oct. 10, 2012 that provided "complete refutation" of Republican "smear" on Libyan issues.

Cummings said Clinton had emailed Blumenthal her intentions to forward content to the White House on Oct. 1, and did so in reference to a critical Salon article, not to the Media Matters posts.

Blumenthal's simultaneous roles as an adviser to Media Matters and the Clinton Foundation while serving as an off-the-books aide to Secretary Clinton at the State Department have drawn fire from critics, who have questioned his impartiality.

Cummings blasted Gowdy for his lack of attention to the leak of "doctored information" to the press in the letter.

A spokesman for Gowdy did not immediately return a request for comment.