The House’s top investigator on Sunday said the FBI failed to notify a surveillance court it was relying on material funded by Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign when it asked to snoop on an adviser tied to the Trump campaign.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, also said judges wouldn’t have authorized and repeatedly renewed a warrant to spy on the former Trump aide, Carter Page, if it hadn’t been for that very material, compiled by investigator Christopher Steele in a controversial dossier.

"They could have easily said it was the DNC and Hillary Clinton. That would have been really easy," Mr. Gowdy told CBS’s Face the Nation, referring to footnotes in the agents’ request to the court. "It took longer to explain it the way they did, than if they just come right out and said, ’Hillary Clinton for America and DNC paid for it.’ But they didn’t do that."

Mr. Gowdy was involved in drafting a four-page memo by the House Intelligence Committee that details the FBI’s decision to rely in part on Clinton-backed material to spy on Mr. Page in October 2016. It also explores the role of top Justice Department officials in renewing those snooping powers.