Hill GOP figures reject Trump’s memo claim

Gowdy says Mueller has his support 100 percent

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s claim of exoneration in the Russia investigation was undercut Sunday by several Republican lawmakers, including one who helped draft a memo the president has embraced that alleges the FBI abused its surveillance powers.

Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the memo, spearheaded by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-calif., did not have “any impact on the Russia probe.”

Gowdy is a member of the committee and the only Republican on it who has read classified documents that are the basis of the disputed four-page memo.

On Saturday, Trump seized on the GOP memo, which was publicly released Friday after he declassified it over Justice Department objections, as confirming his contention that the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller is a “witch hunt.” In a tweet from his Florida resort, the president declared that the memo “totally vindicates” him.

The president also reportedly told associates that the memo bolstered the case for ousting Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee who oversees Mueller.

Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said the material the FBI used to win a secret surveillance court’s approval for its surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page did not prompt the bureau’s wider look at whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Gowdy, who has announced plans to retire, also said he supports Mueller “100 percent” in conducting the investigation.

A fellow Republican congressman, interviewed on CNN’S “State of the Union,” also said the overall Russia investigation is a “separate issue” from matters addressed in the memo. “It’s more looking within the agencies, something we have oversight over,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio said.

A former Trump aide, meanwhile, disputed news reports that the president had ordered Mueller fired in June but was dissuaded by White House counsel Don Mcgahn, who threatened to quit rather than carry out the order.

Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who was pushed out in July, was still at his post when Trump was reported to have given the order. Priebus, interviewed on “Meet the Press,” said he had “never heard” of any such contention.