It’s being reported today that Trey Gowdy will not be joining Trump’s outside impeachment team. Here’s a report from John Roberts:
Colleage John Roberts rpts fmr GOP SC Rep Gowdy became concerned about taking job of outside counsel to Trump, worried about Congressional cooling off period after a mbr leaves office. There were questions as to if Gowdy could "indirectly" influence Hse mbrs about impeachment
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 14, 2019
Here’s more from Roberts:
Apparently House rules prohibit former congressmen, within a year of leaving office, from taking jobs that would put them in a position where they would be influencing congressional members. And that’s essentially what Gowdy’s job would have been.
As Robert’s points out though, Gowdy may join Trump’s outside counsel when that time limit is up, which would presumably be sometime in January.
Roberts also noted that Gowdy was initially offered a job to join the White House staff as the point person on impeachment, but he turned that down for family reasons.