'I didn't know Mormons use drugs': Top GOP congressman rips Harry Reid's letter to the FBI director
Rep. Trey Gowdy mocked Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Monday evening for suggesting FBI Director James Comey may have violated the Hatch Act by disclosing the agency's continued investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
In an interview with Fox News, the congressman expressed relief at Reid's impending retirement from the Senate, and criticized the minority leader's letter to Comey.
"Thank god he's leaving, is my initial reaction," Gowdy said. "My second reaction is I did not know Mormons use drugs. Anyone who is capable of sending out the press release has to be under the influence of something."
On Sunday, Reid accused Comey, a Republican with a reputation of enforcing the law equally, of playing partisan politics with the investigation.
"Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another," Reid wrote to Comey in a letter.
The minority leader also suggested that the director was withholding information about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's potential ties to Russia.
"In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government - a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity," Reid said.
Reid previously praised Comey after the FBI's initial investigation into Clinton yielded no recommendation for charges. At the time he said "no one can question the integrity" of him.