Rep. Trey Gowdy said Wednesday that President Trump should talk to special counsel Robert Mueller about the ongoing collusion investigation into his campaign.
“I think the president should tell Mueller in private what he has told all of us in public, which is he didn’t collude with Russia. He doesn’t know anything about it, and if anyone connected with his campaign did, he wants the public to know it,” Mr. Gowdy, South Carolina Republican, said on CBS News.
Although he has never met or spoken with Mr. Trump personally, Mr. Gowdy said the president has stated publicly that he wants to know if any of his campaign staff or advisers were involved in collusion.
“Think back to what the president himself told James Comey. He said ‘I didn’t collude with Russia, but if anyone connected with my campaign did, I want you to investigate it.’ It strikes me that that’s exactly what the FBI was doing,” Mr. Gowdy said.
He and Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican, received a classified briefing from officials at the Department of Justice and FBI last week concerning this case. A second briefing was held for other lawmakers, including some Democrats.
Mr. Gowdy said that based on the information he received, the FBI was investigating Russian influence, not monitoring the campaign’s political activity. He also said the term “spy” is not how he would classify the situation.
“That is not a term I’ve ever used in the criminal justice system,” he said, calling it a “espionage” term.
