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Harold Watson "Trey" Gowdy III (born August 22, 1964) is the U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 4th congressional district, a lawyer and former prosecutor. He is a member of the Tea Party movement within the Republican Party.[1] His district includes much of the Upstate region, including Greenville and Spartanburg.

Before his election to Congress, Gowdy was the solicitor (district attorney) for the state's Seventh Judicial Circuit, comprising Spartanburg and Cherokee counties. From 1994 to 2000, he was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina.

In 2014, Gowdy became chairman of a House Select Committee to investigate the 2012 Benghazi attack

“Lois Lerner just referred to conservatives as an obscene body part and she said we were ‘crazies’ and likened us to terrorists!”

- Response for the legal counsel Professor Charles Tiefer after being asked of the connection drawn from his example.

"Mr. Speaker, the House of Representatives does not exist to pass suggestions. We do not exist to pass ideas. We make law. And while you are free to stand and clap when any president comes into this hallowed chamber and promises to do it with or without you, I will never stand and clap when any president – no matter whether he’s your party or mine – promises to make us a constitutional anomaly and an afterthought. WE MAKE LAW!!!.”

" Mr. Inspector general, we can adopt all the possible recommendations you can conceive of. I’m just saying that it strikes me – and maybe it’s just me – it strikes me as a CULTURAL, SYSTEMIC, CHARACTER, MORAL issue."

"This entity has not only targeted citizens that it was supposed to serve, it’s allowed itself to be used as a political tool, not only does it have access to our financial information, it will soon have access to our health information. Those are details that we don’t share with people that we do trust. And we’re going to be asked to share it with people who are so disconnected as to spend this amount of money while our fellow citizens are struggling mightily in the fall of 2010. I don’t think training is going to fix it. I think replacement might. "