On Trump and Russia, Oversight Chairman Gowdy says he will stay in his lane

The new chairman of the House’s most powerful investigative committee said Friday that with limited exceptions, his panel will not probe matters related to the alleged Russian interference in the presidential campaign – including President Donald Trump’s possible obstruction of the federal investigation into it.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who was named chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week, told reporters the investigation is more squarely under the purview of special counsel Robert Mueller and other congressional committees.

“I told Bob Mueller Tuesday that I would never do anything wittingly or unwittingly that veered over into his lane, and his lane is broad, and it is undetermined at this point,” he said.

Gowdy referred to the Justice Department order appointing Mueller that authorized him to probe “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation” into Russian election interference.

The decision to defer to other entities stands to vex Democrats who watched Gowdy and his predecessor, outgoing Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, vigorously pursue what they considered to be politically motivated probes into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton even as Justice Department and other committees probed the same matters.

Gowdy said there were Trump-related matters he did see falling within the Oversight panel’s purview – procedures for issuance of security clearances, for instance, and the constitutional prohibition on accepting “emoluments” from foreign benefactors.

But Gowdy said, for instance, he was not interested in seeking memos written by former FBI director James Comey detailing his interactions with Trump before he was fired. Chaffetz had requested the memos, but the FBI declined to provide them, citing Mueller’s probe.

“Judiciary, for sure, would be, I think, the proper committee to provide oversight over the Department of Justice and the FBI,” he said.

A former state and federal prosecutor who also holds seats on the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, Gowdy said he wished to “respect jurisdictional integrity” as chairman and keep his panel focused on matters squarely reserved to it under House rules – such as the coming 2020 Census and the District of Columbia government.

But the panel also possesses broad “permissive” jurisdiction to probe virtually any matter involving the executive branch of government. Gowdy said he would not hesitate to investigate the Trump administration – when warranted.

“The legislative branch should do what it’s supposed to do, and it should not be usurped and it also should not abdicate its responsibilities,” he said. “The executive branch under President Obama was resistant of that, and we had to get to court to get some of that, and I expect the executive branch under President Trump to be resistant, so that’s just a natural tension.”

While the Oversight panel is known for pageantry and grandstanding at its open hearings, Gowdy said his preference was to use hearings to present findings gathered after the panel does its investigations.

“If I were to devise an inefficient way to gather facts, I don’t know that I could devise anything better than five-minute increments alternating between (Republicans and Democrats),” he said.

This story was originally published June 23, 2017 at 11:42 PM with the headline "On Trump and Russia, Oversight Chairman Gowdy says he will stay in his lane."