Trey Gowdy: There’s Going to Be a Russia Probe, Even Without a Dossier

Republican Representative for South Carolina Trey Gowdy said during a Sunday interview that aired on CBS’s show “Face The Nation” that the unclassified memo pointing to abuse of power by the Justice Department has no impact on the Russia investigation.

Gowdy, who is a former prosecutor and now the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was asked about Trump’s statement that the memo “totally vindicates” him in the Russia probe.

“I’m sure the president is frustrated. You know, Adam Schiff prejudged the investigation before we interviewed the first witness,” Gowdy said during the interview.

“So I’m sure that that instructs some of what he said. I actually don’t think it has any impact on the Russia probe for this reason.”

Later the host of the show Margaret Brennan pressured Gowdy to answer directly if he believes the memo has “no impact on the Russia probe.”

“Not to me, it doesn’t — and I was pretty integrally involved in the drafting of it, there is a Russia investigation without a dossier. So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica,” he said.

“It also doesn’t have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there’s going to be a Russia probe, even without a dossier,” Gowdy added.

The memo which was released Friday shows that senior Justice Department officials used information obtained from the Steele dossier in order to approve surveillance warrants on Carter Page, who was a  member of the Trump transition team and former Trump campaign adviser.

According to The Hill, Republicans have seized on the memo’s release, saying it proves the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, is tainted by bias.

However, the memo also shows that the Russia investigation was not triggered by Page but by information the bureau obtained about Papadopoulos, a former adviser to the campaign.

Meanwhile, the Democrats that sit on the House Intelligence Committee are trying to release their own memo that will show the real picture behind the one released Friday.