Trey Gowdy returns to Fox News as contributor after brief hiatus

Attorney and former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is back as a contributor at Fox News, after parting ways with the network in October amid reports that he would serve as an outside counsel for President Donald Trump during the ongoing impeachment probe.

What are the details?

Fox News hired Gowdy in January to serve as a contributor after he decided not to seek reelection to the House of Representatives last year.

On Oct. 9, several media outlets including Fox News reported that Gowdy had agreed to join President Trump's legal team as House Democrats escalated their impeachment inquiry. The same day, Fox News confirmed that Gowdy had been "terminated" by the network.

But Gowdy never joined the president's legal team. The Washington Examiner reported that "despite his return to the legal profession after the midterm elections in 2018, federal law prevents Gowdy, 55, from taking on Trump as a client in the impeachment fight until Jan. 3, 2020."

New York Times White House correspondent Annie Karni was the first to break the news Friday that Gowdy had been rehired by Fox.

A Fox spokesperson later confirmed to the The Hill that Gowdy had made his return to the network. Gowdy had, after all, appeared on Fox's "The Story with Martha MacCallum" more than once this month to weigh in on the Department of Justice Inspector General's report regarding FISA abuses against the 2016 Trump campaign.

Anything else?

Gowdy, a former prosecutor, earned a reputation as a conservative firebrand during his tenure in Congress. He served as chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and oversaw the House Benghazi Committee where, as The Hill reported, "he grilled former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other Obama officials" for answers over the "2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya."