House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy laid waste into former FBI Director James Comey in a firey opening statement during the congressional hearing on Tuesday.
The hearing on Capitol Hill continues for the second day in a row discussing Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on his review of the Hillary Clinton email case. (Video Below)
On Monday the Inspector General confirmed that his office was investigating Comey for potentially mishandling classified information, regarding the sharing of memos detailing conversations with President Trump.
Gowdy began Tuesday’s hearing held by the House oversight and judiciary panels with an explosive smack-down directed at Comey and certain agents in the bureau he led.
He declared, “we can’t survive with a justice system we don’t trust.”
Referring to IG findings that Comey defied his superiors in his handling of the Clinton email case, Gowdy accused the ex-director of essentially operating by his own rules. (Video Below)
“We see Jim Comey and Jim Comey alone deciding which DOJ policies to follow and which to ignore,” he said.
Gowdy blamed Comey of watering down his initial statement on the investigation’s findings and making other decisions on his own. While Comey has suggested he acted unilaterally out of concern for the Justice Department’s handling of the case, Gowdy questioned why he didn’t seek a special counsel, as he indirectly did regarding concerns about the Trump administration.
“Instead, he appointed himself FBI director, attorney general, special counsel, lead investigator and the general arbiter of what is good and right in the world according to him,” Gowdy declared. (Video Below)
Gowdy continued saying that the IG’s report should “conjure anger, disappointment and sadness in anyone who reads it.”
But, Trey Gowdy didn’t stop there. He noted that in the wake of the IG report, there were FBI agents and attorneys who decided to “prejudge” the outcome of the Clinton case.
“These exact same FBI agents and attorney prejudged the outcome of the Russia investigation before it even began,” he added.
He announced, “prejudging the outcome of an investigation before it ends, and prejudging the outcome of an investigation before it begins” is the “textbook definition of bias.”
WATCH Gowdy’s SMACK-DOWN below:
