Trey Gowdy says that this memo does not invalidate the Mueller investigation:
He does believe that the memo addresses important concerns with the FISA process, which provides judicial and congressional oversight for wiretapping done by intelligence agencies, but he also expresses confidence in the FBI and DOJ:Trey Gowdy wrote:As I have said repeatedly, I also remain 100 percent confident in Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The contents of this memo do not - in any way - discredit his investigation.
Gowdy was interviewed in Face the Nation. Here's how that interview started:Trey Gowdy wrote:While this memo raises serious concerns with the FISA process, I have been and remain confident in the overwhelming majority of the men and women serving at the FBI and DOJ.
The Nunes Memo is available online. Most of it involves a request for wiretapping Carter Page made in October 2016.MARGARET BRENNAN: Saturday, President Trump tweeted that the memo "totally vindicated Trump" in the Russia probe. We sat down earlier with South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy, a key House Intelligence investigator and asked him if he thought the president had been vindicated.
REP. GOWDY: I actually don't think it has any impact on the Russia probe for this reason --
MARGARET BRENNAN: The memo has no impact on the Russia probe?
REP. GOWDY: No-- not to me, it doesn't -- and I was pretty integrally involved in the drafting of it. There is a Russia investigation without a dossier. So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos' meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there's going to be a Russia probe, even without a dossier.
On the last page, it clearly indicates that the Papadopoulos information was what triggered the original FBI counterintelligence investigation in July 2016, well before that.
Note that according to Devin Nunes, only Gowdy had actually read the FISA materials, which Nunes himself had not read.
He explained that the committee set up an agreement with the Justice Department that would allow just one person to review the documents.
Nunes said he thought Gowdy would be the best choice because of his background as a federal prosecutor, and that Gowdy then shared his notes and observations with the rest of the members.