Gowdy Says He Hasn’t Seen Evidence Of Trump’s Wild Wiretapping Claim

House Benghazi Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., speaks during a TV news interview with MSNBC, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2016, to discuss the release of his final report on the 2012 a... House Benghazi Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., speaks during a TV news interview with MSNBC, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2016, to discuss the release of his final report on the 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where a violent mob killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who led the House’s Benghazi investigation, told Fox News on Monday that he has not seen any evidence to back up President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that Barack Obama ordered surveillance of Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.

After Gowdy said he has not seen any evidence to support Trump’s tweets on the matter, Fox News’ Bill Hemmer noted that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the House Oversight Chairman, said earlier on the network that the Obama administration had “been notorious on this type of stuff.”

Hemmer asked Gowdy if he had anything to add to Chaffetz’s comments, and in response the South Carolina Republican took the opposite tack.

“I don’t view it as the Obama team,” Gowdy said. “I don’t think the FBI is the Obama team, and I don’t think the men and women who are career prosecutors at DOJ belong to any team other than a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales.”

“We have certain tools that this country needs to keep us safe, and it is great and wise and prudent and legal for those tools to be used lawfully and appropriately,” Gowdy continued. “If they’re not used lawfully and appropriately, there is a paper trail and we’ll be able to find it out.”

He noted that Obama is not President any more.

“So any information that the current Department of Justice has that suggests the previous Department of Justice acted inappropriately, they are welcome to release it,” Gowdy said.

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Notable Replies

  1. So Gowdy apparently still has at least a momentary shred of dignity…

    Hemmer asked Gowdy if he had anything to add to Chaffetz’s comments, and in response the South Carolina Republican took the opposite tack.

    “I don’t view it as the Obama team,” Gowdy said. “I don’t think the FBI is the Obama team, and I don’t think the men and women who are career prosecutors at DOJ belong to any team other than a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales.”

  2. Has anyone ever remarked about the similarity to Slade “Skeletor” Gorton?
    Minus the brains, of course.

  3. Avatar for win win says:

    Why Is Trump Returning to Birther-Style Attacks on Obama?
    Attempts to delegitimize Barack Obama are a classic page in the Trump playbook.

    . . . There is, however, an unmistakable familiarity to Trump’s latest accusations against Obama. Without knowing whether Trump’s tweets were based on an intelligence report, a news report, a conspiracy theory, or something else entirely—one must consider the possibility that the unsubstantiated claims are, in fact, a political strategy. Trump has peddled a lie as a way to delegitimize Obama in the past.

    “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office,” Trump tweeted on August 6, 2012, “and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.”

    This was more than a year after Obama had publicly shared a copy of his birth certificate.

    Trump reached for a classic tactic of his: Shock and distract.

  4. I see Draco Malfoy’s evil twin.

  5. Avatar for clare clare says:

    Gowdy needs to dip his entire head in astringent every few hours. The guy exudes oil literally and figuratively, to a ridiculous extreme. It’s gross.

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