Former House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said Monday that congressional hearings like the one featuring President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, are “utterly useless.”
“What we learned this past week is how utterly useless public congressional hearings are,” Gowdy said on “Fox & Friends.”
“I think two closed-door sessions this past week on the Senate and House side with the Intelligence committees were very helpful. That is why they’re bringing Cohen back.”
{mosads}Gowdy in 2015 grilled former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for hours over her role and knowledge of the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
When questioned on Monday by host Steve Doocy about the Benghazi hearings, Gowdy, who is now a contributor with Fox News, said, “I was an utter, unmitigated failure.”
“Which is why in the one investigation I ran we interviewed 103 people. One hundred and two of them were done behind closed doors.”
Cohen last week gave testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee, during which the former lawyer made a number of explosive claims about Trump’s behavior in office, calling the president a “racist” and “con man.”
Cohen is facing a three-year prison sentence for a series of charges including lying to Congress.