House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Wednesday he agrees with House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) that the FBI did nothing wrong when it used a confidential informant to speak with Trump associates during the 2016 campaign.
Mr. Trump has seized on the disclosure of the use of an informant to claim, without evidence, that federal law enforcement officials had improperly placed a spy in his campaign “for political purposes.” He demanded a Justice Department inquiry of the matter and dubbed the matter “SPYGATE” in repeated posts on Twitter.
Mr. Ryan became the highest-ranking Republican to throw cold water on that interpretation, which Democrats and former high-level law enforcement officials have claimed is part of an unrelenting effort to discredit the ongoing investigation into Mr. Trump and his campaign.
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Mr. Gowdy and Mr. Ryan were among a small group of congressional leaders briefed on the informant late last month by top officials from the F.B.I., Justice Department and the office of the director of national intelligence. The unusual meeting came after Mr. Trump intervened on behalf of Representative Devin Nunes, a California Republican and the Intelligence Committee chairman, who was demanding information related to the informant.
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Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also put his support behind Mr. Gowdy’s analysis on Wednesday, following Mr. Ryan’s remarks.
Ryan also warned the president against using his power to pardon himself when asked if he thought Trump had that authority.
“I don’t know the technical answer to that question, but I think obviously the answer is he shouldn’t,” Mr. Ryan told reporters. “And no one is above the law.”
On Tuesday, Democratic Congressional leaders sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wrap and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensetin asking for confirmation no one at the Department of Justice has "given the President’s outside counsel, White House staff or the President access to the same classified information briefed to Congress" or plans to in the future.
From the press release:
“We remain deeply troubled by President Donald Trump and his legal team’s persistent efforts to interfere with the Special Counsel’s ongoing investigation and undermine your agencies’ lawful activities,” the Members wrote in the letter. “These developments leave us concerned that, through his legal team or otherwise, the President will continue to pressure your agencies to divulge investigative information which he, his attorneys, and his congressional allies then could manipulate or even disclose publicly for the President’s benefit. That would be a terrible abuse of power.”
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) have asked Wray and Rosenstein to respond in writing by 5pm on June 11th.
Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, and Warner Send Letter to DOJ on Materials Briefed to “Gang of 8” (press release)
Paul Ryan Dismisses Trump’s Charges of a Spy in His Campaign (NYT)