House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, who announced his upcoming retirement earlier this year, is pushing back against President Trump's assertions there was a spy placed inside his 2016 campaign in an effort to target him. Further, he's defending the FBI's use of an informant on the campaign and says they were doing their job.
"Donald Trump was never the target of the investigation, he isn't the current target of the investigation," Gowdy said during an interview with Fox News Tuesday evening. "I am even more convinced 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."
"I think when the President finds out what happened he's going to be not just fine, he's going to be glad we have an FBI that took seriously what they heard. He was never the target, Russia was the target," Gowdy said.
During another interview with CBS Wednesday morning, Gowdy was asked about President Trump's use of the word "spy."
"That's not a term I ever used in the criminal justice system. Undercover, informant, confidential information, those are all words I'm familiar with. I've never heard the term 'spy' used," Gowdy said. "That's an espionage term not a law enforcement term."
"I’ve never heard the term ‘spy’ used. I have not (seen any evidence of that). Informants are used all day, every day by law enforcement." @TGowdySC on @CBSThisMorning pic.twitter.com/jcIiaG8CiB
— Norah O'Donnell???? (@NorahODonnell) May 30, 2018
Revelations of a spy in the Trump campaign came after the New York Times published a lengthy story detailing the work of an FBI information during the 2016 presidential election.
The F.B.I. obtained phone records and other documents using national security letters — a secret type of subpoena — officials said. And at least one government informant met several times with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos, current and former officials said. That has become a politically contentious point, with Mr. Trump’s allies questioning whether the F.B.I. was spying on the Trump campaign or trying to entrap campaign officials.