But the memo — which Mr. Gowdy said he was “intricately involved” in drafting — did not make the case promised by some Republicans: that the evidence it contained would cast serious doubt on the origins of the Russia investigation and call into question any conclusion that Mr. Mueller might reach.

“As I watched him on ‘Face The Nation,’ what he said was pretty clear from my perspective,” said Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina and a close friend of Mr. Gowdy’s. “He put the memo in one tranche and put the Russia investigation in another tranche, and I think one doesn’t cancel out the other.”…

“I don’t think that Trey was looking to contradict anybody,” said Representative Thomas J. Rooney, Republican of Florida. “I think that Trey speaks from a place of judicial and lawyerly knowledge that a lot of people don’t have or comprehend.”