House Benghazi committee chair argues the Clinton email case should not be discussed 'until the investigation is over'

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 1 November 2016

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said Tuesday he doesn't think the FBI should be talking about its investigation of Hillary Clinton's email server until the case is closed. "I don't want an update on the status of the email investigation. I am not entitled to an update on the status of the email investigation," Gowdy, who once worked at the Justice Department, said during an interview on CNN's New Day. "They should not be discussing the facts of an investigation until the investigation is over."

But while Gowdy doesn't want updates, he said he does agree with FBI Director James Comey's initial decision to inform Congress that more emails were discovered that could be pertinent to the previous investigation of Clinton's private email server. "I don't view his letter as an update on the facts of the investigation. I view it as a notice document," Gowdy said.

A handful of Gowdy's Republican colleagues don't even agree with Comey's decision to send out the "notice document," as Gowdy called it. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) slammed the FBI disclosure as "vague" and said it "failed to give ... enough context to evaluate the significance or full meaning of this development," while Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said the FBI director's letter to Congress was "probably not the right thing for Comey to do."