Longtime Trump supporter Congressman Trey Gowdy (SC-4) has said there is no evidence that he has analyzed that the FBI planted a “spy” within the president’s 2016 campaign. Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was briefed last week by the Justice Department and FBI following reports that investigators relied on a U.K.-based U.S. government informant in its investigation into Russian election meddling.
During an Tuesday interview with Fox News, the senior House Republican said, “I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump.”
Such news contradicts President Trump’s repeated allegations that the FBI inserted a, “spy for political reasons and to help Crooked Hillary win,” he said according to a report from ABC News.
Gowdy explained that he, “never heard the term ‘spy’ used,” in his investigation and did not see evidence of that. “Informants are used all day, every day by law enforcement,” he added.
The president has exaggerated reports of the FBI informant by calling the situation “spygate,” claiming on Twitter that it was, “starting to look like one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history.” Moreover, Trump has also rejected continuous assertions from U.S. intelligence agencies that the Russian government was working to sabotage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
As President Trump is set to be interviewed by White House Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Trump’s legal team as requested that they be allowed to review classified information surrounding the origins of the FBI investigation into Russian election meddling.
“The folks who have seen the information have the same perspective,” Gowdy said. “The folks who have not seen the information, I don’t know what informs their perspective.”
Nevertheless, Gowdy did, quite expressively, support Trump’s “frustration” with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia investigation in May 2017. The possible conflict of interest arose after Sessions was said to have two previously undisclosed interactions during the 2016 campaign with the Russian ambassador.
Gowdy said that President Trump is just, “expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job. Not afterward.”
Trump even tweeted some of Gowdy’s comments on Sessions, including his saying that, “there are lots of really good lawyers in the country,” and that the president, “could have picked someone else,” for the post.
“And I wish I did!” Trump wrote.
