Outgoing Rep. Trey Gowdy on Sunday bristled at President Donald Trump’s attorney John Dowd calling for the Justice Department to end the special counsel probe.
“If you have an innocent client, Mr. Dowd, act like it,” the South Carolina Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Gowdy, who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee and sits on the Intelligence and Judiciary committees, said he believed Dowd had done the President “a disservice” by releasing a statement saying he prays that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will end the investigation led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. Gowdy also spent six years as a federal prosecutor before being elected to Congress.
He noted that outside of the question of potential coordination between Trump’s associates and Russia to influence the 2016 election, the special counsel probe was focusing on other matters of national concern, namely Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election.
“That is supremely important, and it has nothing to do with collusion,” Gowdy said.
Asked about comments on the probe from Trump, who Sunday morning was continuing to tweet his frustration, Gowdy offered similar thoughts.
“If the allegation is collusion with the Russians, and there is no evidence of that, and you are innocent of that, act like it,” Gowdy said.
He added later in the interview, “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you should want the investigation to be as fulsome and thorough as possible.”