Rep. Trey Gowdy, outgoing chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said Sunday that Republicans have done more in the last week to investigate Ivanka Trump’s emails than Democrats ever did on the 2012 Benghazi attack.
“Congress has a responsibility to make sure that the records and the Presidential Records Act is complied with, and that is true no matter who the person is, whether it’s Secretary Clinton or whether it’s Tom Perez or whether it’s Ivanka Trump,” Mr. Gowdy said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“So we’ve taken steps, we’ve done more in the last week than some of my House Democrat colleagues did the entire time we were looking into Benghazi,” he said. “So I’m at peace with what we’ve done, but we need the information and we need it quickly.”
The South Carolina Republican said he has already written to the White House requesting information about the First Daughter’s use of a private email account in her capacity as adviser to her father, and has spoken to Ms. Trump’s attorney and Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s ranking Democrat.
He also pushed back over a report that he had previously called for the prosecution of Ms. Clinton over her use of a private email server for government work during her sting as Secretary of State, which included communications involving classified documents.
“There are two separate issues: The divulging of classified information is a crime. Using personal email upon which to conduct public business is not a crime,” said Mr. Gowdy. “You’re not supposed to do it. It’s not best practices.”
SEE ALSO: Rep. Trey Gowdy turns attention from Hilary Clinton’s emails to Ivanka Trump’s
As a result, “I’ve never called for Hillary Clinton to be prosecuted and I couldn’t possibly have done it for using private email because it’s not a crime,” Mr. Gowdy said.
.@TGowdySC on Ivanka Trump’s emails: Divulging secret information is a crime, using personal email for government business is not. pic.twitter.com/bGOAYPtxx6
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 25, 2018
President Trump, who made Mrs. Clinton’s mishandled emails a centerpiece of the 2016 presidential campaign, defended Thursday his daughter’s use of a private email account, telling reporters she did so for a “short period of time, very early on” and that it was “very innocent.”
“There was no anything, just innocent emails,” Mr. Trump said, adding that there were “no classified emails. It’s another fake news story.”
Mr. Gowdy agreed that he was “concerned” over the president drawing conclusions over the results of the House investigation.
“I am concerned any time any president prejudges the outcome of an investigation, whether it’s President Obama, whether it’s President Trump,” Mr. Gowdy said.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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