Paul Ryan Says He Has Seen No Evidence The FBI Spied On Trump’s 2016 Campaign
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan echoed the opinion of fellow Republican Trey Gowdy Tuesday when he said that he has seen no evidence to support President Trump’s claim that the FBI spied on his presidential campaign. A third Republican, Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, voiced his agreement on the issue as well according to a report from CNN. The only Republican who has been briefed on “spygate” but has yet to go public with his opinion is Representative Devin Nunes who says that he wishes to receive and examine more documents before speaking on the matter.
Last week, South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, stated that he believed the FBI’s actions were appropriate, saying, “I am even more convinced that 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.” Tuesday, Ryan voiced agreement, saying, ” I have seen no evidence to the contrary of, of the initial assessment that Chairman Gowdy has made.” He followed that statement by agreeing with Rep. Nunes by saying, “I want to make sure that we run every lead down and make sure we get final answers to these questions.”
GOP lawmaker breaks with Trump's claims of FBI spy: There wasn't one https://t.co/q5sdsVtPTe pic.twitter.com/nJrhW4y29X
— The Hill (@thehill) June 7, 2018
Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy have both received closed-door briefing on how the FBI used the informant who was part of the Department of Justice’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. CNBC states that Gowdy was the only member of the Oversight Committee to read all of the documents provided so far as supporting evidence of the president’s charges. They have requested but not yet received more documents, something Ryan also spoke out about Tuesday according to The Hill.
“We have some more documents to review. We still have some unanswered questions… If we got all the information we were looking for, we could wrap this up faster.”
Mr. Gowdy commented on Trump’s use of the term “spy” in the matter, saying, “I’ve never heard the term ‘spy’ used. Undercover informant, confidential informant, those are all words I’m familiar with. I’ve never heard the term ‘spy’ used.”
The comments from Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy place them at odds with President Trump and some House conservatives who have claimed that a spy was planted in his presidential campaign for political purposes. They charge that this spy was used to gather information for the investigation into collusion between Trump and Russia.
