Harold Watson " Trey " Gowdy III ( born August 22 , 1964 ) is an American attorney , television news personality , politician , and former federal prosecutor who served as the U.S. Representative for from 2011 to 2019 . His district included much of the Upstate region of South Carolina , including Greenville and Spartanburg . Before his congressional career , Gowdy served as a federal prosecutor in the District of South Carolina from 1994 to 2000 and then as the solicitor ( district attorney ) for South Carolina 's Seventh Judicial Circuit , comprising Spartanburg and Cherokee counties , from 2000 to 2010 . From 2014 to 2016 , Gowdy chaired the United States House Select Committee on Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi which was partly responsible for discovering the existence of Hillary Clinton 's private email server . His investigative committee spent over two and a half years and $ 7.8 million investigating the events surrounding the 2012 Benghazi attack , ultimately finding no evidence of specific wrong-doing by then-Secretary of State Clinton . Gowdy pressed for the prosecution of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign . From 2017 , he chaired the House Oversight Committee
2012 Benghazi attack
2012 Benghazi attack
Trey Gowdy