Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) on Sunday said that Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a “fair” investigator and prosecutor, and urged colleagues to “leave him the hell alone.”

“He didn’t apply for the job. He’s where he is because we have an attorney general who had to recuse himself,” Gowdy said on “Fox News Sunday,” referring to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “So Mueller didn’t raise his hand and say, hey, pick me. We, as a country, asked him to do this.”

Asked if he has confidence in Mueller, Gowdy said, “One hundred percent, particularly if he’s given the time, the resources and the independence to do his job.”

Gowdy said that he thinks Trump “has a fair investigator” in Mueller.

“I think he’s got a fair prosecutor in Bob Mueller, but he doesn’t have a fair jury,” Gowdy said, referring to Democratic members of Congress and in particular Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Gowdy said there are “two components” to the purview of Mueller’s investigation.

“There is a criminal component. But there’s also a counterintelligence component that no one ever talks about because it’s not sexy and interesting. But he’s also going to tell us definitively what Russia tried to do in 2016,” Gowdy said. “So the last time you and I were together, I told my Republican colleagues, leave him the hell alone, and that’s still my advice.”