South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced Wednesday that he is retiring from Congress at the end of his term, becoming the latest high-profile committee chairman to opt against re-election.
“I will not be filing for re-election to Congress nor seeking any other political or elected office; instead I will be returning to the justice system,” Gowdy said in a statement.
The former federal prosecutor was elected to Congress in 2010. He quickly gained fame for his role in investigating Obama administration scandals on the Oversight Committee and then as the chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
The 53-year-old Gowdy, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, has been outspoken about the FBI’s investigations into 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email practices, as well as the Russia probe involving President Trump and his aides. Most recently, he has been a proponent of publicly releasing the House Intelligence Committee memo on alleged government surveillance abuses.