Trey Gowdy on Russia report findings: FBI continues to not meet expectations
Trey Gowdy weighs in on a Senate Intel reports findings on the Russia investigation and Paul Manafort
The FBI "continues to not meet our basic expectations," Fox News contributor Trey Gowdy told "The Story" Tuesday in response to the final report from the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into Russian activities during the 2016 election campaign.
"Russia is not our friend and on that every American should agree," Gowdy, the former chair of the House Oversight Committee, told host Martha MacCallum. "They are not our friend. Number two, there is no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. And number three, the world's premier law enforcement agency continues to not meet our basic expectations."
The committee found that the FBI gave the unverified anti-Trump dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele “unjustified credence.” It also found that Russia “took advantage” of members of the Trump transition team’s “relative inexperience in government."
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"It is one thing, Martha, to use information that's not been vetted. That's bad, but that's one thing," Gowdy explained. "It is another thing to use information you know is unreliable, you know it is not accurate, and still continue to use it. This is [former FBI Director] Jim Comey's problem. But quite frankly, Martha, it has become [current FBI Director] Chris Wray's problem.
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"You can be part of the cleanup crew or you can be part of the cover-up crew," he added. "And there are more things coming out with the Durham report that show the FBI's primary concern is its own reputation."
The Senate committee also found that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s “presence on the Trump campaign and proximity to then-candidate Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump campaign.”
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"Paul Manafort is not a good guy," Gowdy said. "He's right where he should be [in prison]. The Trump campaign probably wishes they'd vetted him more. But, you know, Martha, he did what he did for money. That's the oldest motive known to man. He was cash-strapped. He thought they owed you money. So he's showing internal polls for himself, not to help Donald Trump, but to help himself," Gowdy said.
"So I congratulate Senate Intel. I mean, they worked hard on it. But in terms of takeaways, when you're talking about a Ukrainian or Russian whose name we can barely pronounce, that that is not the narrative we've been fed over the last four years, that Trump colluded with Russia. There's no evidence of that."
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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