Lame duck House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said that he agreed with GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy’s assessment that there was no evidence to support President Trump’s “SPYGATE” claims.
“I think [House Oversight Committee] Chairman Gowdy’s initial assessment is accurate,” Ryan told reporters at his weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill.
He also offered support for House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes’ ongoing investigation into the Justice Department.
“I think we have some more digging to do. We are waiting for some more document requests. We have some more documents to review. We still have some unanswered questions,” he said.
“It would have been helpful if we’d gotten this information earlier. As Chairman Nunes said the other day, if we had the information we could wrap this up faster,” he said about the California Republican, a staunch Trump loyalist who worked on his transition.
“I want to run every lead down and make sure we get the final answers to the questions. I’ll leave it at that. I won’t keep commenting.”
Trump, without offering any evidence, has repeatedly alleged on Twitter that the Justice Department planted a spy inside his presidential campaign.
“SPYGATE could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!” the president wrote late last month in one of a flurry of adrenalized tweets on the topic.
Gowdy, after reviewing Justice Department documents on the FBI’s and special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, shot down Trump’s claim.
The FBI did use an informant who approached a trio of Trump campaign aides over their ties to Russia.
Ryan also disputed Trump’s claims that he had the constitutional authority to pardon himself.
“I don’t know the technical answer to that question,” he said when asked at a Capitol Hill press conference about Trump and his lawyer’s assertions about absolute executive power.
“But the obvious answer is he shouldn’t [pardon himself] and no one is above the law. I’ll leave it at that. Thanks,” Ryan said before darting from the podium, abruptly ending the briefing.
Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, made the startling claim during the weekend that Trump could shoot ex-FBI director James Comey and escape prosecution while explaining the administration’s view of the scope of presidential authority.
Ryan is not running for reelection, and the leading candidate to replace him should the GOP retain control after the mid-term elections is California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, another reliable supporter of the president.
