Report: Gowdy Didn’t See Documents That Allegedly Refute Trump’s FBI Spy Claim
Reporters wrote that the DOJ, FBI didn’t provide documents at briefing with congressional leaders.
Outgoing Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) caused quite a stir when he said on TV that he found no evidence that the FBI spied on President Donald Trump’s campaign after he received a briefing from the DOJ and FBI.
Now reports have emerged that Gowdy and others at the meeting did not see any documents or subpoenas they requested.
On Tuesday night, Gowdy told Martha MacCallum on Fox News that the meeting he attended convinced him “that 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.”
Gowdy appeared on CBS This Morning the next day and said (emphasis mine):
“When the FBI comes into contact with information about what a foreign government may be doing in our election cycle, I think they have an obligation to run it out,” said Gowdy on “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday.
He added, “Based on what I have seen, I don’t know what the FBI could have done or should have done other than run out a lead that someone loosely connected with the campaign was making assertions about Russia, I would think you would want the FBI to find out whether there was any validity to what those people were saying.”
—
Gowdy said he thinks the president would have a different perspective if he was shown classified documents he and his colleagues were shown last week. “I think his lawyers have an obligation to share with him what Devin [Nunes] and Paul [Ryan] and I saw last week, I’m convinced when he sees it, he’s going to say ‘you know what, that’s what I told [James] Comey I wanted the FBI to do.”
He also said that he believes the FBI “would tell you that Russia was the target and Russia’s intentions toward our country were the target.”
Over at The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway wrote that a spokeswoman for Gowdy told the publication “that the congressman doesn’t even know what documents and records were subpoenaed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).”
Hemingway said her publication asked the spokeswoman if Gowdy “had seen all the documents Congress requested,” but but she “repeatedly declined to say what, if any, subpoenaed records Gowdy had reviewed during the roughly hour-long briefing.”
Other reports back up Hemingway’s article:
(HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes, WH Chief of Staff John Kelly, Trump attorney Emmett Flood)
Sources tell me Gowdy and Nunes did not receive the documents they requested during the noon meeting at DOJ, despite the pleas for openness from Kelly and Flood at the start of the briefing
— Sarah Westwood (@sarahcwestwood) May 24, 2018
Sounds like documents were not presented by DOJ/FBI at today’s Gang of 8 briefing, which may mean — after all that — it ultimately proves to be unsatisfactory to those who have been pushing for their provision (Nunes/Gowdy)
— Olivia Gazis (@Olivia_Gazis) May 24, 2018
.@RepMarkMeadows on DOJ briefing congressional leaders this week: No documents were shown. We are hopeful this will happen in coming days as long as we protect sources and methods.
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) May 27, 2018
I reached out to Gowdy’s office and asked for clarification. It’s important to remember that this was a confidential meeting. We also don’t know what they TALKED about.
I will update this once (or if) I receive a response from Gowdy’s office.
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I speculate that Gowdy is seeking another federal troughfeeder job after leaving Congress and is trying to keep himself in good graces with the unctuous federal troughfeeders of the world. Perhaps a district court judge position?
He might have a hard time getting around a Trump disapproval and Trump’s input to and influence on Congress.
You have an accidental up-thumb. You’re an idiot.
Takes one to know one.
Odds that a Rags reply to any comment on this site will invoke an infantile insult — 99.999999%.
His embittered, childish and hostile schtick is so absurdly tiresome. A pitifully disturbed, malignant and ornery child.
Vote this post up if you enjoy living rent free in Ragesquirrel’s head.
Ragesquirrel is a bigger legal expert poseur than Milhouse, and Milhouse admits that he is not an attorney.
But Ragesquirrel is more viperous and a bigger asshole.
Gowdy is clearly giving self serving performances.
Gowdy wasn’t talking about what he saw at that meeting, buit during the course of his tenure on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Gowdy didn’t say there wasn’t a spy in the Trump campaign.
85.I get the feeling that there was a informant (not Stefan Halper) whose name and existence is still secret, who actually got a job in the Trump campaign.
Nobody who would know the facts seems to be taking issue with Trump’s claim there was a spy in his campaign. If it was Halper, he tried, but he never did get a job.
Carter Page is maybe a possibility but that would make him both a spy and someone spied upon.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/05/30/on-fox-news-rep-trey-gowdy-and-andrew-napolitano-dismantle-trumps-spygate-theories/?utm_term=.4823e4370458`
This says that Andrew Napolitano said claims that the FBI placed an undercover spy on Trump’s campaign “seem to be baseless” But Napolitano doesn’t know anything. Gowdy does and he does not debunk it. He justifies it. Am I wrong?
Doing “exactly what my fellow citizens would want” is very vague and completely consistent with planting a spy inside the campaign.
I think Gowdy is trying to keep something secret that he is a not at liberty to disclose.
Gowdy seems to have walked back some of his prior talk, but he is a prosecutor at heart, and prosecutors have far more faith and trust in law enforcement than a lot of the citizens do due to the things we have seen and learned.
I get the feeling something could be nearing a breaking point with this.
I totally disagree with Gowdy saying Trump should sit down with Herr Mueller. Gowdy in his prosecutors hat would always want to sit down with every possible source, but Trump sitting down with a man who I firmly believe wants to take him down should be a firm and loud NO. Mueller has nothing but landmines waiting for a chance to explode on Trump, and as the Good Professor has stated, there is no information that Trump can give that Herr Mueller doesn’t already have access to. Trump could easily be tripped up with a statement, and I am sure that is what Mueller is hoping for.
Gowdy knows a lot about this whole “spy” issue, he said earlier in this week there is no such thing, now he isn’t saying that. I see a sacrificial lamb being brought out soon from the Trump camp, but I also think the spying thing is soon going to be shown to be true to some degree.
I don’t think it’s any of the peripheral campaign aids. What could they possibly know? Page has never met Trump. The spy is someone involved in the day to day operations. That is why Rosenstein won’t ever release the FBI documents. Trump has really come up short in letting Rosenstein flout Congress.
Not only is the loudmouth Gowdy making another one of his baseless claims, based on evidence he has not seen, he is also attempting to speak for what the public would want. He is a fraud.
The spy inside the campaign didn’t spy on Trump or look for campaign plans.
So you think the spy didn’t spy? Was the spy there for coffee and donuts? Not buying this statement at all. Given the things that were done under the Obama regime a spy being placed in Trump’s campaign being given additional orders to gather information on their plans could far to easily be written off as making sure the Russians weren’t part of any said plans.
I think Sammy is making a distinction between the statements “there was no spy in the Trump campaign” and “there was nobody spying on the Trump campaign.” They’re not necessarily the same things.
Can anybody cite a single instance after Gowdy chaired a Congressional hearing resulted in an indictment?
All GOPe talk, no action.
Can anyone with a brain recognize that Congress has no power to prosecute ANYTHING (except the very rare contempt citation)?
Certainly not SwineRefarts.
Hemmingway, read this:
Eugene Volokh: May Congress Order the Justice Department To Prosecute People Who the Justice Department Firmly Believes are Innocent?
http://volokh.com/posts/1185084836.shtml
Why don’t you read it? The answer is “no”.
Its a thinking persons piece.
I didnt expect you’d understand it.
You two or three lunatics should start a blog.
You’ll have 2 or 3 readers.
One of it did and it failed. It only had two comments including the blog owner.
You fully missed the point about Gowdy. You cannot identify a single time in which the loudmouth Gowdy recommended indictment of anyone involved in these massive scandals, or Congressional impeachment, or Congressional contempt. Did Gowdy ever write a criminal referral?
Why did Gowdy, as usual, not call in any of the 20 witnesses he said he would, 8 months ago?
The point is, and will be, that Gowdy has never done his job.
Congress has the ability to make a referral to the DOJ for criminal prosecution, and that referral carries a hell of a lot more weight than a demand for action from a person on the street. And from an internet imposter, troll, and oxygen thief like Ragesquirrel.
It is Jacobin Ragsquirrel to you.
I’ve tried, tried…..TRIED to believe that Gowdy was going to do something positive for the past 6 years. All I have heard is a lot of barking yet not a single bite. The good people of Spartanburg, SC have a different opinion of Mr. Gowdy, an opinion of someone who talks a good game yet never delivers, and a bit of rumor of him being for himself.
Interesting and much of my thoughts exactly. Over the years, I have seen video clips of Gowdey in action. I thought he was very tenacious and precise in his questioning of others. Then I started to realize that in each new hot clip, Gowdey would have a different hairstyle 🙂
Smile pretty for the camera, Trey.
Piece of evidence #18945 why Trey Gowdy is a RINO hack that will never accomplish anything useful.
This exact scene is straight out of Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School after Dangerfield hires people to do his midterm papers for him.
DEAN ‘Mr Melon, is the work turned in for midterms your own work?’
MELON ‘Dean, I can’t lie to you. YES IT IS’
DEAN ‘Well ok then’
PROFESSOR ‘Are you serious?’
DEAN ‘Well gee whiz Phil I asked him if he did the work and he said yes what more do you want from me?!?!’
Gowdy is acting EXACTLY like the Dean.
OK, I’m lost. Too many names, too many dates, too much information.
Can anyone tell me why Russia would want Trump elected instead of Hillary? This is way beyond me and that seems to be the central question.
Sadly, Putin no long communicates with me directly, but I think they just wanted to create whatever chaos they could, for the new guy. It didn’t matter who that was.. just making havoc.
If that were the case I would think they would have done the same to Hillary’s campaign. Maybe they did but no one is interested.
It’s okay, I emailed Putin this afternoon:
“Hey FineReportski!
No, I wanted that idiot clinton in power, not Trump! Remember: I’ve been buying her cheap for years! You silly Americanskis…
-Vlad”
Russia didn’t want Trump elected. But she was sure he wouldn’t be, so she didn’t mind helping him if that would cause chaos and distrust. When she, along with the rest of the world, was surprised by his victory, she turned on a dime and started undermining him.
According to some reports, the Russians (after the election) stage both pro- and anti-Trump rallies pretty much at the same time. They were just stirring the pot.
Are the learned individuals defending Gowdy forgetting the malicious texts and plethora of dirty tricks against Trump that indisputably reveal the malicious motives of Obama and his putrid federal agencies, while at the same time Obama and those agencies turned blind eyes on the corrupt Clinton conspirators? With that for background how can any honest person ascribe any good intent on the part of those investigating Trump and his campaign?
You mean besides T-rump…??? Who asked for the investigation?
Not to say that there’s not a lot of bad faith here. But the FBI is a bunch of people, with people foibles and virtues. I think you can take some stock in what Gowdy says. Unless, of course, you are a nutter like some here to ascribe to him the basest of all possible motives without the least support.
I well remember you telling us Stormys lawyer was a “good one”. Turns out he is a corrupt failure, likely criminal. So I assume your Gowdy proclamation will be much the same.
Gowdy is corrupt.
I think I’ll wait until we have something besides self serving rumors. But at the moment, it looks like the evidence for Trump involvement was a circle jerk. The FBI could feel virtuous, but the justification was manufactured.
But there appears to be lots more, going back before the primaries and involving lots of people.
What Gowdy said EXPRESSLY was that he didn’t think Duh Donald was in collusion with the Russians. What he ALSO said was that there were allegations that members of his campaign were implicated, AND those has to be investigated, WHICH included anything an informant (normal and not a “spy”) provided.
“T-rump….”
Do you have an indigestion problem?
True, but so are the State Dept and the CIA. I don’t suppose you would dispute that as institutions they have been corrupt for a long time. I believe the same is true of the FBI, and that it only got worse during the 0bama years. Along with the DOJ, the IRS, and a bunch of other agencies.
Check your timeline. If you mean Trump requested the investigation (when Comey presented the dossier), then you misspoke. (See, I’m being kind here. Try it some time)
This “counterintelligence investigation” began when Trump was a candidate. He certainly never asked for an investigation as a candidate.
Gentlemen, there are ladies present. I expect you to act and type accordingly. Stop with the name calling. It in no way enhances discussion or debate.
I think you just egged everyone on even more.
I will have lost all faith if Trey Gowdy leaves Congress and takes a job with the FBI.
If Rosenstein gets the boot from his obvious conflict of interest, could you see Gowdy as Assistant AG?
The position of AG is the most powerful position in government because the AG can imprison *anyone*.
That’s why Both Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch were put in that office: to ensure Obama’s criminality was never prosecuted (along with Hillary’s).
By the same token, Sessions is filling the same role for the GOPe/Deep State. If he leaves, Gowdy will continue the disgrace.
The only person I would trust as AG now is an experienced head of Internal Affairs at a major precinct who is hated by every cop.
That tells you 1) that they know what they’re doing and 2) don’t care about being popular.
HH….I’ve heard from a reliable source that wishes to remain anonymous, Mr Gowdy has been offered a very lucrative posistion in the FBI’s Entrapment Division…
Another thread, another Rag’s therapy session.
Questions
1) does this site ever ban disruptive commenters?
2) or is it that the software doesn’t allow it?
3) or can you just delete all off topic comments? That would be the easiest, I think. Trolls really hate it when they spend 5 mins crafting a “sick burn” only to have it deleted. Just a few threads will stop the nonsense.
He’s doing for this blog what Roseanne has done for her ABC show.
Fen…
That’s a pretty good zinger!
But my question to you is, would you rather have an echo chamber where everyone agrees? Sounds pretty…..boring…..
Several of the commenters here seem to really spaz out about Ragspierre…
I say, if you don’t like him….don’t read him or give him a good zinger. 🙂
This is the internet…it’s not like he’s there with you in person…it’s not like Rag’s is your next door neighbor. (wow, there’s a wild thought)
Anyway, no offense meant…just my 2cents!
Gowdy, Nunes and other attendees GOT PLAYED by Trump Deranged FBI/DoJ with a meeting to read unredacted documents and NONE were provided at the meeting.. instead they were given a dog and pony show by Rosenstein et alii about classified, counter intelligence..
what’s shameful is Gowdy et alii did not walk out immediately and either believe the warning to keep the secret(s) or are ashamed to admit being played and get the said documents by impeaching Rosenstein.
Reading comments (again) leads me to a conclusion of two possibilities: One is that our resident lawyer that comments frequently probably has a phone number that is all “9” or “4” as in 999-9999 or that his television ads have a jingling rhyme such as “Call (insert name here) when you collide, call 999-9999”
Jay,
Elaborate on that one.
The back and forth bickering leads me to believe that all our law friends have this label applied, but mostly it is directed at one who seems to post the most ridiculous rebuttals that prove he has no courtroom experience.
I don’t think he is a lawyer, he just plays one on tv.
So what does someone have to do to actually get banned from this site? Because if the ticky-tack, kindergarten ad hominem stuff above doesn’t do it, apparently nothing will.
Strange, isn’t it?
have to do to actually get banned
Spam the place, probably.
Bombard it with fruits & nuts, probably not.
All you need to register for this site is an email address. Ban the toddler’s account and he’ll just register for another one.
You’d have to ban his IP (and even then there are workarounds), and a bare-bones comment system like this probably doesn’t have that capability.
I take Gowdy’s comments as an equivalent to a visit to http://www.zombo.com
I’ll keep my powder dry for the day I’m told something useful.
Well, there’s 30 seconds I can never get back. :p
I seem to recall reading the President has the authority to declassify anything he wants. If so he should start doing so.
Yon know what? All in all, this is a great thing: we busted the GOPe, we got Ryan to retire, then we busted Sessions, now have busted Gowdy.
This all very, very good.
Now we have this corrupt GOPe rat to get rid of:
How McConnell and Chao used political power to make their family rich:
https://nypost.com/2018/03/17/how-mcconnell-and-chao-used-political-power-to-make-their-family-rich/
LI, really? There’s no way to implement a ‘block’ feature on commenters? This comment section clearly demonstrates a person with a drinking/anger management problem that routinely attacks the other posters. I realize you make money off the clicks, but have you ever considered it keeps other from frequenting your site? Trust me, I like this site but avoid it because your comment limits are way, way beyond the pale.
If someone hurts your snowflake eyes, avert them, honey.
Very simple. Works every time…
your comment limits are way, way beyond the pale.
Spelling and punctuation are usually pretty good, though.
I’m going to watch the rest of “12 Strong” now.
Y’all pretend I’m still here, and just lie like its your job!
I have never commented on this issue .I respected Ragspierres opinion on legal issues with the Freddie Gray and other legal battles ,but I feel he is only a distraction anymore .
LI should consider a ban or a timeout.
The constant fighting takes away from reasoned discussion.
We all make mistakes. The important thing here is whether you have learnt from that mistake? 🙂
I’m going to withhold judgement on Gowdy’s motives for now. There’s enough classified and redacted material flying around to make guessing on insufficient information a chancy proposition.
There’s a few absolutes we know:
1) Certain swamp creatures in the FBI/Justice Dept. were 100% Hillary, and willing to weight the scales of justice with a few anvils in her favor, as well as help put together an October Surprise to nuke Trump’s campaign in the last moments. It failed (thankfully)
2) Part of their scheme involved a counter-espionage operation as cover to vacuum up every Trump campaign email, phone call, and text during the final months of the election. They unmasked the FISA wiretap names and proceeded to pipeline the information all over the government. If there had been anything seriously incriminating in that information, we would have seen it by now. So strike two.
3) The Clinton campaign used illegal/questionable methods to funnel money to foreign intelligence agencies (and Russia by proxy) in order to collect *two* folders full of unverifiable accusations against the Trump campaign. They came within a smidgen of getting the FBI to pay for the whole thing, too. A year post-election, and still zero actual verifiable facts in that collection of fanfiction and fantasy. Strike three.
4) Comey felt confident that he would be able to stay in office and screw with the Trump administration due to the supposed furor that would be generated by the firing of a sitting FBI chief. Shows how much he knew. Strike four.
5) The DNC and Dem leaders thought the general chaos and hubub of the investigation and judicious lies spread by and to the media would drive Trump’s approval numbers down to single digits. Thankfully, their efforts were more like fighting a fire by pouring gasoline and liquid oxygen on it. Strike five in November (we hope)
Most amazing is Sessions complicity in the cover-
up.
Was protecting the likes of klinton worth your legacy, jeff? She couldnt pay any of us here enough money to sell the nation out as you have.
I suspect Trump is biding his time until after the Republican majority has increased in the Senate in November before replacing Sessions with someone actually capable and willing to clean out the stench of corruption from the DOJ/Washington/The Swamp ™.
You need to hold back on Gowdy after so many ridiculous statements? Gowdy did not say he was guessing, he said with certainty, that the spyng was OK, and without the relevant documents. He’s a self serving loudmouth.
It is similar to a few weeks ago when he said Trump was appearing guilty by not submitting to a Mueller interrogation? Did you miss that?
We can see why Gowdy is leaving office, much like Jeff Flake.
So apart from Brennan admitting there was a spy in the campaign, after all that was a good thing right…there is no evidence a spy was placed in the Trump campaign?!?! HAHAHAHAHAHA 🙂
Both Gowdy and Rubio have turned out to be great disappointments. I remember watching both during their panel questionings thinking that they were only asking the halfway-there questions. Gowdy never asked Hillary the most direct questions; like maybe he really didn’t want to know the truth, but only wanted to give the impression of being combative.
“Both Gowdy and Rubio have turned out to be great disappointments.”
Ha, they are doing exactly what a thought they would be doing. Nothing! I had zero expectations out of them because they have no backbone.
Sessions is the spy…it sure explains alot!
I am withholding judgement until after the IG report is released.
Withhold all you want. Sessions is completely defined as a corrupt, cowardly betrayer.
The IG is an internal audit, it is nothing close to a criminal investigation, which would take many more months due to another one of the stall tactics from Sessions as part of his obstruction operation.
That is correct. That is why Sessions appointed a doj prosecutor outside the Beltway to handle the matter. This person has been in place since 2017. I forget his name but a nice little write up can be found at the Treehouse.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/03/08/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-confirms-prior-appointment-of-doj-prosecutor-to-parallel-ig-horowitz-not-a-special-counsel/
That seems to be a reasonable goal for Putin’s regime. And they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They couldn’t have predicted the reaction from those suffering from TDS, and while they easily could predict what the MSM “take” would be, I doubt they believed Trump would win thereby giving the Left the opportunity to go full on berserker for at least four years.
Well, that was supposed to be in reply to Amwick’s comment that the Russians just wanted to create as much chaos as possible.
If Pres. Trump is Dir. Wray’s boss, (and his subordinates like Rosenstein), does he not have the power and absolute right to order Wray to order Rosenstein to release all docs to Congress for oversight? As for the FISA applications as well, Trump could order them unsealed.
I know I’m probably going to get some push back here, but this makes me think Trump would rather blather on Twitter about “spies!” or “corrupt FBI/DOJ!” rather than get to the bottom of this fiasco. Trump is shrewd enough and confident that there is zero collusion to decide he is better off without knowing exact what went down.
Yes, but.
If Trump orders the release, he will immediately face charges that releasing the documents causes to be leaked (and they will be) and interferes with the prosecution of his subordinates, and therefore is an obstruction of justice which deserves impeachment et al…
Precisely Rod Rosenstein’s argument. I’m not saying you are wrong, just agreeing with your proper framing of the counter argument.
“Gentlemen, there are ladies present. I expect you to act and type accordingly. Stop with the name calling. It in no way enhances discussion or debate.”
But does it make us more attractive to women?
Good evening. Tonight we’re going to take a hard tough abrasive look at camel spotting.
Breaking – Obama admin & appointees caught in Spygate.
Widespread and very early knowledge
https://spectator.org/hit-gas-not-brakes-on-spygate/
Even Obama’s speech writer knew and was tweeting about it to MSM in early 2017.
Swamp sends it’s paid puppet Gowdy out to spread disinformation. Every time.
Think his middle name is Tor.
https://spectator.org/hit-gas-not-brakes-on-spygate/
I noticed too, that when spygate was exposed, suddenly the loudmouths Gowdy & Rubio get in front of cameras, insisting there is no problem, without having conducted any investigation.