Gowdy: Dems ‘Not Interested’ in National Security Impact of Leaks

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) blasted Democrats and members of the mainstream media for refusing to tackle the issue of illegal leaks trickling out of the government that pose a threat to national security during an interview Monday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

Gowdy, a member of the House Oversight and Intelligence committees, addressed escalating Russian hysteria as the political adversaries of President Donald Trump continue to hunt for Kremlin connections in the administration.

“We know what we know in large part now because of an unauthorized leak of classified information. And I can’t get the Democrats interested worth a damn in talking about the leaks.”

“We know what we know in large part now because of an unauthorized leak of classified information. And I can’t get the Democrats interested worth a damn in talking about the leaks,” Gowdy told LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham.

Gowdy noted that the downfall of former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn occurred because of surveillance and the subsequent illegal leaks pouring out of the government and delivered to news outlets, including The New York Times. But the public revelation of sensitive information, Gowdy said, jeopardizes national security and the government’s ability to do its job.

“So, you and I should not be having the conversation because we should not know that there is a transcript of a conversation between Flynn and anyone else,” Gowdy said. “He’s an American citizen, there are minimization procedures. There are masking procedures. And the fact that we know about it, frankly, Laura, is going to jeopardize our ability to reauthorize some of these programs.”

“Your question, implicit in your question is something that the media doesn’t want to talk about — or some parts of the media — and the Democrats don’t want to talk about, which is … there are methodologies of surveillance and collection that are indispensable, in my judgment, to our country’s national security,” Gowdy said, adding that Americans are “not supposed to know about those methodologies and you’re never supposed to know the content of some of those communications.”

As for Trump’s allegations of wiretapping, Gowdy noted that Trump “does have access to information that the rest of us do not have.” Even though Obama officials have claimed that the former president did not order surveillance over Trump, they notably did not deny whether or not Trump experienced wiretapping at all.

“There are two ways that government can lawfully intercept oral communications. One is a Title III, which is a criminal inquiry. The other is FISA, which is kind of an intelligence inquiry,” Gowdy said. “The good news is there’s a paper trail. There’s a warrant. There’s an application. There’s judicial review, and right now the Justice Department is not controlled by President Obama.”

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Gowdy promised that he would do everything in his power to get the bottom of four key issues.

“What did the Russians do? Who did they do it with? What was our response — and the leaks. Those are the four things I’m interested in,” Gowdy said, adding that the “what was our response” question also involved the actions Obama took before he left office.

“So if there is something there — and there should be, under, I know, Title III or FISA — we should have access to the application and the paper trail,” Gowdy added. “And we’ll be able to answer the question.”