# Trey Gowdy **Trey Gowdy** (born August 22, 1964) is a former federal prosecutor and South Carolina congressman who chaired the House Benghazi Select Committee and then the [[House Oversight Committee]], and who now hosts a Fox News program. ## Career Gowdy was a federal prosecutor (1994–2000) and a state circuit solicitor (2000–10). In 2010 he beat incumbent Republican Bob Inglis in a primary runoff, 70–30, and represented SC-4 from 2011 to 2019. ## Benghazi The committee investigated the 2012 attack in Benghazi during [[Hillary Clinton]]'s tenure as Secretary of State. From May 2014 to July 2016 Gowdy chaired the Select Committee on Benghazi, which spent $7.8 million and issued its final report in June 2016. ## Oversight and exit Gowdy succeeded [[Jason Chaffetz]] as Oversight chair on June 13, 2017, announced in January 2018 that he would not seek reelection, and left Congress in January 2019 for a [[Fox News]] contributorship and a return to the Nelson Mullins law firm. He has hosted *Sunday Night in America* since 2021; episodes were still airing in August 2026. ## 2025–2026 Wikipedia reports that Trump pardoned Gowdy's client, sports executive Tim Leiweke, on December 2, 2025 after Gowdy lobbied for it. *[Single-sourced.]* In July 2026 Sen. Tim Scott said he "would love to see" Gowdy replace [[Lindsey Graham]], adding that Gowdy had been "pretty clear that he is not looking for the job." ## RWKB angle The Benghazi committee is the prototype of the congressional investigation run as a campaign operation; Gowdy's later path — Fox anchor, pardon advocate — shows the post-Congress circuit that path leads to. ## See Also - [[Jason Chaffetz]] - [[House Oversight Committee]]