Kevin Daley, DCNF

GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina blasted John Dowd and President Donald Trump’s legal team on Fox News Sunday, after Dowd told reporters he hopes Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein will use Andrew McCabe’s firing a pretext to end special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Gowdy, a Republican stalwart who led investigations of the Benghazi attacks, Hillary Clinton’s private email server, and the Department of Justice’s “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation, stopped just short of calling Trump’s lawyers amateurs, as the administration’s public relations campaign against Mueller reaches a fever pitch.

“The president’s attorney does him a disservice when he says that and when he frames the investigation that way,” he told Chris Wallace, noting Mueller’s mandate is to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election generally, and not the Trump campaign specifically.

“If the allegation is collusion with the Russians and there is no evidence of that, and you’re innocent of that, act like it,” he added.

At this stage of the probe, Mueller’s team has secured indictments against 13 Russian nationals, former Trump aides Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and George Papadopoulos, and two attorneys, Richard Pinedo and Alex van der Zwann.

Dowd told the Daily Beast late Friday that McCabe’s dismissal for misleading federal investigators further proves that the FBI was compromised at the highest levels throughout the 2016 election and the early months of Trump’s presidency.

“I pray that Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt dossier,” he wrote by email.

He subsequently claimed he was speaking in his personal capacity, and not on Trump’s behalf.

The president repeatedly attacked the special counsel on Twitter over the weekend, accusing former FBI Director James Comey of lying under oath during his June 2017 testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and — as ever — styled Mueller’s investigation a witch hunt.

Wow, watch Comey lie under oath to Senator G when asked “have you ever been an anonymous source…or known someone else to be an anonymous source…?” He said strongly “never, no.” He lied as shown clearly on @foxandfriends.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2018

The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2018

Emoting notwithstanding, Trump has resolved to fire the special counsel before, only to back off under pressure from his staff. White House counsel Don McGahn threatened to resign after Trump reportedly ordered him to sack Mueller in June 2017.

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