Trey Gowdy: Donald Trump asking to be cleared at the beginning of an investigation is inappropriate

Rep. Trey Gowdy said Thursday that President Trump asking to be cleared at the beginning of an investigation isn’t appropriate.

“At the end of an investigation if someone has done nothing wrong, it’s not inappropriate to ask the district attorney or someone else to say, hey since you had me under cloud, do you mind telling people I’m not under a cloud anymore? That’s probably not appropriate to do on the front-end of an investigation because I don’t think anyone would be able to answer that question fully,” Mr. Gowdy told CNN.

The South Carolina Republican said he promised special counsel Robert Mueller that he would not interfere with the investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia. Rep. Elijah Cummings, however, sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Wednesday asking why senior adviser Jared Kushner still had security clearance. Mr. Kushner failed to disclose numerous meetings with Russian officials.

“I promised Bob Mueller Tuesday night that I would not do anything wittingly or unwittingly that interfered with his probe. That used to be what I do for a living. I’m very sensitive to staying out of his lane. If Elijah wants to make accusations of a crime, that’s up to him, but I’m going to let Bob Mueller figure it out,” Mr. Gowdy said.