South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy is being hammered by President Donald Trump’s allies after he said it was appropriate for the FBI to use an informant to investigate Russian activities during the 2016 presidential election and that the agency did not plant a spy in the Trump camp for political purposes despite the president’s claims, Politico reports.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, on Thursday said Gowdy was “drinking the Kool-Aid,” in buying the FBI’s story. Giuliani also took a shot at Gowdy’s handling of the House Benghazi Committee, which he chaired during the panel’s investigation of the 2012 terrorist attack that resulted in the loss of four American lives in Libya.
"I never understood what he did with Benghazi either," Giuliani said. "He really screwed that up. I don't know what he was doing."
Fox News host Sean Hannity on his show Wednesday night targeted Gowdy for defending the FBI and said the four-term congressman, “apparently doesn’t get it.”
“He’s actually defending the FBI’s use of spies in its overall investigation into Russian collusion,” Hannity said.
And Fox News host Lou Dobbs labeled him a “RINO,” — a Republican in name only.
Trump nearly two weeks ago attacked growing reports concerning FBI surveillance of his camp, terming the matter as “Spygate” and declaring that it “could be one of the biggest political scandals in history.”
Gowdy attended the Justice Department briefing on Trump’s allegations on May 25 and said FBI Director Chris Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made it clear that Trump was never the target of the investigation.
"I am even more convinced 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 told Martha MacCallum on the Fox News Channel.
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