Trey Gowdy

“I listen to Gov. Romney have to apologize because he has been successful.”

“When you go into public service, you understand you're trading something. You want to feel good about what you do, but you're not going to make what people in private sector make.”

“If you can turn off certain categories of law, do you not also have the power to turn off all categories of law?”

“For 16 years I spoke in trial metaphors, and perhaps I need to get out of that habit.”

“I'm unelectable in the District of Columbia.”

“I do not want to stay in Washington.”

“You don't get John Gotti to testify against his driver. You get the driver to testify against John Gotti.”

“Even someone as lowly as an assistant U.S. attorney has to undergo a background check, and you're asked a series of very invasive questions, and you're expected to tell the truth and they're under penalty of perjury. And you're asked those questions so you can't be blackmailed or extorted.”

“The notion that the First Amendment has no limitations whatsoever is balderdash.”

“You may be less likely to pick on someone if you don't know what's in their briefcase or purse.”

“I don't have an issue with whether - from a legal standpoint, with whether or not government can impose the ultimate punishment on people. We do it in capital cases. Police officers shoot fleeing felons.”

“There's several different forms of executive privilege. The one that is most absolute would be close advisers talking to the president himself.”

“I don't think the president had anything to do with Fast and Furious. I'm not sure Eric Holder did, which leads to a conversation about whether he should have known about it.”

“Facts are neither Republican nor Democrat.”

“If you were summoned for jury duty and you didn't show up, what would happen? You'd be in jail!”

“Unless your name is Jack Bauer, you cannot make people talk.”

“The longer you remain silent, the longer you don't turn over documents, a presumption begins to build that you're withholding something. That's human nature. That may not be a legal presumption, but that's a common sense presumption.”

“It is actually costlier to hire an immigrant. And yet the farm worker is almost invariably an immigrant. You can't pay an American to pick blueberries.”

“There's a reason that students don't grade their own papers. There's a reason defendants don't sentence themselves. And there's the reason the State Department doesn't get to investigate itself, determine whether or not it made errors in Benghazi. That is Congress's job.”

“There's no way we can get to the bottom of Benghazi without David Petraeus.”