Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) wondered Wednesday why the Democratic National Committee did not turn over its hacked computer server to authorities after the organization said it never received federal assistance, floating the possibility that the DNC had something it "didn't want law enforcement to see."
Gowdy spoke with Fox News host Martha MacCallum about why the DNC did not turn over its server to the Department of Homeland Security or FBI officials who could have helped patch holes in the organization's network to prevent future cyber intrusions.
The DNC was hacked during the 2016 presidential election and thousands of emails were subsequently published by WikiLeaks.
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, who served during the Obama administration, testified to the House Intelligence Committee earlier on Wednesday that the DNC said at the time it did not need the Department of Homeland Security's help after the hacks.
Following Johnson's testimony, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) said that while she was chair of the DNC, she was never contacted by any federal agency, including DHS and the FBI, about the hack.
Gowdy, who questioned Johnson during his testimony, discussed the Obama administration's actions in the wake of the hacking, and how the server was never turned over to federal authorities. When McCallum asked Gowdy why the DNC did not take action, he could only speculate.
"Let me hazard a wild guess: that there may be something else on that server they didn't want law enforcement to see?" Gowdy said.
Gowdy then spoke to his career as a prosecutor, saying that when a victim does not turn over such material, there is speculation that the victim may too have something to hide from authorities.