Thursday’s hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, featuring testimony from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray had quite a few heated moments. One highlight was when Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina) expressed his disgust for how Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia investigation has gone.
One focus of the hearing was the recent Justice Department Inspector General’s report on DOJ and FBI’s handling of matters surrounding the 2016 presidential election. Gowdy had plenty to say about FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was mentioned in the report as showing political bias against Donald Trump and in favor of Hillary Clinton. Strzok worked on the Clinton email investigation, and was among the leadership of the investigation of Trump campaign ties to Russian election interference.
Gowdy focused on messages Strzok sent where he indicated that he would take action to make sure that Trump would not become president, as well as anti-Trump sentiment that he expressed once Trump was already president and the Special Counsel had been appointed.
“He was talking about impeachment within three days of Special Counsel Mueller being appointed!” Gowdy said. “Three Days! That’s even quicker than MSNBC and the Democrats were talking about impeaching!”
Gowdy went on to say how two years into the investigation, there is still no known evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Trump campaign, only on the part of Russia. Nevertheless, he said, Russia isn’t being hurt by the investigation, but 60 Democrats have already called for impeachment, even with a lack of evidence.
“I realize that neither one of you were there when this happened, but you’re both there now,” Gowdy said, addressing Rosenstein and Wray. “If you have evidence of wrongdoing by any member of the Trump campaign, present it to the damn grand jury. … Whatever you got, finish it the hell up, because this country is being torn apart.”
Rosenstein addressed Gowdy’s concerns, and agreed with him, saying that no allegations have been made against the Trump campaign, and “people should not jump to conclusions without seeing the evidence.”
[Image via CNN screengrab]
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