Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said Monday that it’s “laughable” for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to argue that FBI Director James Comey may have illegally interfered the presidential election when it reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Gowdy said on MSNBC Monday that Reid didn’t make a similar charge after Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s private meeting with former President Bill Clinton while the investigation was ongoing, or when President Obama “prejudged” the outcome of the investigation before it had been closed.
“President Obama is actively campaigning, right now, for a candidate for president, and that doesn’t violate the Hatch Act,” Gowdy said. “So how Jim Comey supplementing his record before Congress violated the Hatch Act is just laughable.”
Reid sent a letter to the FBI director Sunday arguing that his decision to notify Congress about the investigation potentially violated the federal law that limits federal employees’ political activities.
When asked whether he thinks Comey should brief Congress about updates into any investigation into Donald Trump, Gowdy said he counts the FBI director’s letter as simply a notification, since it contained little of substance.
“I don’t consider what Comey did to be updating Congress. I view it as supplementing his previous testimony,” Gowdy said. “It was just a notification letter, is how I viewed it. Not an update,” since lawmakers still haven’t been told what’s in the new emails the FBI is investigating.
Gowdy questioned whether it is fair for Comey to be criticized for making the announcement so close to the election, arguing that it isn’t the FBI director’s fault that the Clinton camp hasn’t been forthcoming.
“I wish we had known this a year ago. But is that Comey’s fault that we did not know she had a private server two years ago?” said Gowdy, who made the discovery about Clinton’s server as chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi. “He did not tell her to mislead the public about whether or not she sent and received public information. He didn’t tell Huma Abedin, ‘Don’t turn over all your devices.’ And God knows he didn’t tell Anthony Weiner to sext with an underaged girl. None of that is Comey’s fault. The timing is a direct and natural consequences and probable consequence of the decision Secretary Clinton made years ago.”
Gowdy said he didn’t anticipate Congress to pursue criminal action against Clinton when asked whether the public can expect more inquiries by lawmakers.
“We’re not good at it, we don’t have jurisdiction, and we can’t do anything about it if we find evidence of a crime,” he said.
