Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Friday he doesn’t plan to probe Russia’s interference in the 2016 election or look into whether President Trump obstructed justice.
Numerous congressional committees are already investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department to oversee a probe into these issues.
But Gowdy told reporters Friday it’s unlikely the Oversight Committee will join their ranks, in part to keep from infringing on Mueller’s work, and also because an investigation into Russian interference falls within the jurisdictions of other committees.
“No. 1, it’s in the jurisdiction of Bob Mueller, and secondarily, I would think Judiciary has jurisdiction over the Department of Justice and the FBI,” Gowdy said, referencing the House Judiciary Committee, according to Politico. “To the extent that any of those memos are classified, that would be [House Intelligence]. And for those that think a third committee ought to look at it, Oversight would have secondary permissive jurisdiction, but it would be secondary.”
Gowdy is taking the gavel from Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who is resigning from Congress at the end of June.
Chaffetz was poised to investigate ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia, and asked former FBI Director James Comey to testify before the Oversight Committee last month, though the hearing was ultimately cancelled.
The Utah Republican also requested memos Comey wrote memorializing his conversations with Trump.
Detailed in one of those memos was a conversation during which the president allegedly asked Comey to end his investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
After Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month about that discussion and others, some raised questions about whether the president obstructed justice.
But Gowdy told reporters he promised Mueller he wouldn’t do anything that “veered over into his lane.”
“I told Bob Mueller Tuesday that I would never do anything wittingly or unwittingly that veered over into his lane, and his lane is broad and undetermined at this point,” he said.
Though Gowdy said his committee wouldn’t investigate potential obstruction of justice and Russian meddling, he did say the Oversight Committee could consider questions about who should or shouldn’t receive security clearances.
The committee’s ranking member, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., recently sent a letter to the Trump administration asking why it never revoked Jared Kushner’s security clearance after he failed to include contacts with Russian officials on his security clearance application.
But Gowdy said he wouldn’t investigate Kushner, specifically, as that would fall to Mueller.
“Allegations of criminal or quasi-criminal activity is squarely within Mueller’s jurisdiction,” Gowdy said. “So the process by which security clearances are granted, if that needs to be tightened, amended, changed, I’m all for it.”
