Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), told Fox News on Tuesday that after attending the President Trump-mandated classified Justice Department briefing last week, he’s “convinced” the FBI acted correctly in deploying an informant to meet with Trump campaign officials.
“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 Trump,” he said Tuesday evening.
.@TGowdySC: "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 @realDonaldTrump." #TheStory pic.twitter.com/hD35CyMzx4
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 29, 2018
The senior House Republican on the Intelligence Committee also said that after sitting in on the classified meeting, he thinks the FBI was actually just following directives from Trump himself.
“It looks to me like the FBI was doing what President Trump said: ‘I want you to do, find it out,’” Gowdy told Fox News. “President Trump himself in the Comey memos said, ‘If anyone connected with my campaign was working with Russia, I want you to investigate it.’ Sounds to me like that was exactly what the FBI did.”
Gowdy’s comments represent a small rift among Republicans who don’t align with Trump’s reaction to reports that an FBI informant met with officials on his campaign during the election. Just last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-NC) appeared to break with the President as well, contending that an “informant is not a spy.”
Trump and his allies have seized on reports of the informant to perpetuate the narrative that a “spy” infiltrated his campaign. Deeming the whole ordeal “spygate,” Trump is convinced the news solidifies his belief in a “deep state” within the Justice Department working to undermine him.
