Rep. Trey Gowdy on Monday called Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid a “political hack” after Mr. Reid said FBI Director James B. Comey might be violating federal law by using his post to influence the presidential election.

“I can’t really use the word I want to use because it would get us in trouble with the FCC, yeah, so we’ll just go with political hack,” Mr. Gowdy, South Carolina Republican, said on Fox News.

“It is laughable that Jim Comey committed a violation of the Hatch Act,” said Mr. Gowdy, a member of the House oversight committee.

“I actually know what the Hatch Act is,” he said. “If the president of the United States actively campaigning on company time for another candidate to be president of the United States is not a violation of the Hatch Act, then how is Jim Comey supplementing the record and telling the truth to Congress a violation of the Hatch Act?”

“Harry Reid knows that this is not a violation,” Mr. Gowdy said, pointing out that Mr. Reid made baseless accusations from the Senate floor in 2012 that Mitt Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years.

“So he is a political hack, and I would say more than that if I weren’t going to get fined by the FCC,” Mr. Gowdy said.

Democrats like Mr. Reid have excoriated Mr. Comey for disclosing to Congress on Friday that, through an unrelated case, the FBI discovered emails that appear to be relevant to its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

They say the FBI should also release information it supposedly has on Republican nominee Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.