Former Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy admitted Monday that he made one big mistake at the outset of the Russia probe.
Gowdy told Fox News host and Daily Caller cofounder Tucker Carlson that his mistake was in taking the word of the FBI leadership rather than demanding to see the documents — a mistake he said he corrected within the first three weeks. (RELATED: Trey Gowdy Says James Comey’s Next Book Should Be About How His ‘Arrogance Wrecked The FBI’)
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Carlson began the segment with a clip of Gowdy from 2018 after he had been briefed by the FBI.
“I am more convinced the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump,” Gowdy said at the time.
“I remember watching that and thinking, boy, I hope he is right,” Carlson said as the clip ended. “Do you still feel that way?”
“Oh gosh, no,” Gowdy laughed, going over some of the details that he later learned that changed his mind.
“I went to the Department of Justice. I sat there for four hours. That is when I saw that Peter Strzok actually initiated and approved Crossfire Hurricane. That is when I saw the exculpatory information on George Papadopoulos. That is when I saw for the very first time that it was the Trump campaign mentioned in that predicate document,” Gowdy explained, noting that the FBI had repeatedly claimed that Trump was not a target.
“So yes, my mistake was relying on the word of the FBI and the DOJ and not insisting on the documents. Luckily it took me three weeks to correct that mistake,” Gowdy concluded.