The Hill News

One of the foremost critics of the White House's job discussions with Senate candidates said Wednesday that they were "probably" not illegal. 

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said that after he asked the White House to reveal information about their efforts to get two Democratic candidates out of primary contests, it appears as if they did not violate the law. 

{mosads}"My questions there got the answer that it was business as usual and it probably is; but it's not the change the American people voted for or the one that was promised by the administration," he said on Fox News. "And it appears as though, clearly, they are not changing everything especially when it comes to using your tax dollars to distort elections in their favor."

Issa aggressively spearheaded efforts to glean more information about the discussions between White House representatives, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) and former Colorado House ! Speaker Andrew Romanoff (D), who decided to challenge to incumbent senators. 

The California Republican requested in June that the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) investigate the matter, suggesting that it could have violated federal law. He even said in May that the incident could be President Barack Obama's Watergate. 

Republicans had used the job talks to attack the Obama administration for committing a crime at worst ! and at least, arguing that it had fallen short of its campaign! promise s of greater transparency. 

In May, the White House said that it tapped former President Bill Clinton to offer Sestak an unpaid position on a presidential advisory board to vacate his campaign against Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.). Sestak refused and went on to defeat Specter, whom the White House had endorsed. 

The White House acknowledged in June that Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina contacted Romanoff to see if he was interested in an earlier job he previously applied for at USAID, or if he was still interested in challenging appointed Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who replaced now-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Romanoff also refused. 

VIDEO