Gowdy: 'I Don't Want the Drama, I Want the Documents'
Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the House oversight committee, said he doesn't want a floor fight -- he wants the subpoenaed documents that the Justice Department has so far refused to turn over to Congress. (File Photo: Screen capture)
(CNSNews.com) - "There's no ambiguity," Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said on Sunday.
Following a meeting with FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other committee chairs on Friday night, Gowdy said Republican leaders are finally willing to use "the full panoply of constitutional weapons" to wrest documents from the FBI and Justice Department.
Gowdy told "Fox News Sunday" that contempt of Congress would be among the options: "I don't want the drama, I want the documents. And I think that Chris and Rod got that message. Contempt of Congress just means we're going to be talking about this six years from now. I don't want that. I want the documents. I don't want the drama, and I don't want the floor fight.
Following a meeting with FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other committee chairs on Friday night, Gowdy said Republican leaders are finally willing to use "the full panoply of constitutional weapons" to wrest documents from the FBI and Justice Department.
Gowdy told "Fox News Sunday" that contempt of Congress would be among the options: "I don't want the drama, I want the documents. And I think that Chris and Rod got that message. Contempt of Congress just means we're going to be talking about this six years from now. I don't want that. I want the documents. I don't want the drama, and I don't want the floor fight.
"But they need to know that we're willing to do it and unless they were in a different meeting than the one -- I have never seen Paul Ryan as animated as I saw him Friday night. He is sick and tired of the delay and he communicated that point very effectively."
Gowdy described the Friday night meeting.
Under the heading of minor miracles, you had members of the House working on a Friday night.
Paul Ryan led this meeting. You had Devin Nunes, Bob Goodlatte, myself, and everyone you can think of from the FBI and the DOJ and we went item by item. On both of those outstanding subpoenas, we either have compliance, we have partial compliance, or we have noncompliance.
And Paul made it very clear. There is going to be action on the floor of the House this week if the FBI and DOJ do not comply with our subpoena request.
So, Rod Rosenstein, Chris Wray, you were in the meeting in the meeting, you understood as just as clearly as I did. We're going to get compliance, or the House of Representatives is going to use its full arsenal of constitutional weapons to gain compliance.
This is too important. It was important before the I.G. report. The I.G. report has even heightened the need for us to understand what happened in 2016, so the new guys can either be part of the cleanup crew or they can be part of the cover-up crew. And I would encourage them to be part of the cleanup crew.
The Justice Department is refusing to turn over subpoenaed documents related to FISA abuse -- what led up to the Russia probe -- and the Strzok-Page texts, Gowdy said. He admitted to being "a little miffed" that Congress saw one of the most damning Strzok texts when the inspector general released his report to the public.
Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is co-chairing a hearing on the inspector-general's report on Tuesday.
"What are the main questions you want to ask him?" host Chris Wallace asked.
"There are a lot of questions I have for him," Gowdy responded.
Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is co-chairing a hearing on the inspector-general's report on Tuesday.
"What are the main questions you want to ask him?" host Chris Wallace asked.
"There are a lot of questions I have for him," Gowdy responded.
"Number one, you know, the Hillary Clinton failure to prosecute was predicated upon two things. Number one, that her emails were not exposed to foreign actors. There's some evidence that that's not true.
“Number two, that there was no evidence of intent. Of course, there's no evidence of intent. He (FBI agent Peter Strzok) didn't bother to ask her. You went into the interview knowing that she was not going to be charged.
“So, I think some members will ask about that,” Gowdy said. “A lot of members are going to ask about the bias. The same thing that exonerated her implicated him before the investigation began, and I suspect some members will ask about the coziness between the FBI and the media.”
Gowdy is among those who say there was political bias in the FBI -- "and yes, it impacted the outcome" of the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton and her misuse of a private email server to do government work.
“Number two, that there was no evidence of intent. Of course, there's no evidence of intent. He (FBI agent Peter Strzok) didn't bother to ask her. You went into the interview knowing that she was not going to be charged.
“So, I think some members will ask about that,” Gowdy said. “A lot of members are going to ask about the bias. The same thing that exonerated her implicated him before the investigation began, and I suspect some members will ask about the coziness between the FBI and the media.”
Gowdy is among those who say there was political bias in the FBI -- "and yes, it impacted the outcome" of the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton and her misuse of a private email server to do government work.
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/gowdy-i-dont-want-drama-i-want-documents
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