Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, tells CBS News the memo he co-authored with Rep. Devin Nunes, R-California, and GOP staffers will not have “any impact on the Russia probe.”
Gowdy spoke with Margaret Brennan, CBS News White House and Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent, in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on Face the Nation. The interview is his first since announcing he would not be seeking re-election in 2018.
Brennan asked Gowdy to respond to President Trump’s claim Saturday that the memo “totally vindicates” him in the Russia investigation.
“I was pretty integrally involved in the drafting of [the memo],” Gowdy said, “There is a Russia investigation without a dossier. So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA 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. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos’ meeting in Great Britain.”
The memo claims former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified that warrants to spy on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide, would not have been obtained without information from a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. Steele has acknowledged having strong anti-Trump sentiments and that his research was funded by Democrats.
The memo’s release came over strong objections from the intelligence community which argued the memo contained inaccuracies and would have a chilling effect on intelligence sharing and cooperation. Democrats also objected, expressing concern Republicans were using the memo to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and that the memo took facts out of context.
The ranking member on the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, called the memo in remarks Thursday “seriously misleading because it omits very material information and has deep factual inaccuracies.”
Schiff and Gowdy are the only members of the committee who reviewed its underlying intelligence before the initial vote Monday to make the memo public.
Gowdy was dismissive of Schiff’s objections in the interview.
“It also doesn’t have anything to do with obstruction of justice,” Gowdy told Brennan, “So there’s going to be a Russia probe, even without a dossier.”
You can watch Gowdy’s interview with Margaret Brennan tomorrow on Face the Nation (@FaceTheNation). Click here to check your local listings.
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