The House Repubicans are trying to distract for Donald Trump by making this morning's hearings about leaks rather than Trump campaign collusion with the Russians.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, infamous for his Benghazi committee, took it even further, and tried to tar President Obama and his administration by naming them as possible suspects in the leaking. No, really.

Gowdy was not concerned with anything else other than trying to prove President Obama and his administration were leaking damaging stories to the media and "unmasking" US citizens.

Gowdy started by identifying who the culprits were and said, "you would start by figuring out, who are the suspects?"

He continued, "Would national security adviser Susan Rice have access to an unmasked US citizen's name?

Comey replied, "Yes, in general any other nationality security adviser would as a matter of their ordinary course of business."

Gowdy then through his list of suspects and asked, "Would former White House adviser Ben Rhodes have access?"

Comey refused to directly answer any of these questions.

Gowdy: "Would former Attorney General Loretta Lynch have access to an unmasked US citizen's name?"

Comey: "In general, yes, as would any attorney general."

Gowdy: "So that would also include acting AG Sally Yates?

Comey: "Same answer."

Then Gowdy channeled Trump's tweets and asked, "I'll just ask you, did you brief president Obama on any calls involving Michael Flynn?"

Comey replied, "I'm not going to get into either that particular case, that matter, or any conversations I had with the president, so I can't answer that."

The Republican members of this committee want so badly for this hearing to be about leaks, rather than Russia. They're covering for Trump and for Putin, and it's treasonous.