It has always been possible that the Russians got to someone associated with the administration. The spy game has never stopped and we do it to them also. The real irony however remains that the MSM has focused solely on Trump when the odds are that Trump had no more knowledge of who it was than Obama did in his administration, Bush in his, or Clinton. That is the way it works.
They have used this to damage Trump from start to finish. The leaks, the innuendo, the special counsel, etc etc etc. As Trump said - if there was someone he wanted them found, but look what they have done to him. They repeatedly tell him privately he is not a target of the investigation, but they don’t state that publicly and the beat goes on and on as do the leaks.
The politicization of the investigation BY THEM and the illegal leaks of classified information have done far more damage to our country IMO. The entire thing is a cascade of “hooks” just as Comey marched to the Oval Office at the direction of Clapper to “brief” the President on the dossier that the media was sitting on. This promptly leaked and CNN ran the story and buzzfeed published it. This was the basic game they played. Go back and look at the Howard Kurtz book where he detailed how Comey approached Priebus about a news cycle not being true... Priebus asked him to publicly say that and he refused. Hours later the news cycle became even more frantic with WH interferes in investigation. They have done this over and over to damage the administration - it is their game.
It is likely that the intelligence services pumped, funneled, and teased lots of “raw intel” to the FBI under the direction of Brennan and Clapper who also planted hooks using the State Department and British Intel all funneled to the 7th floor of the FBI to make it appear like there was a case. This led to electronic surveillance that, thanks to the new Obama policy, was widely disseminated throughout the government facilitating the leaks.
It was all a series of hooks and a series of leaks to damage the administration for political purposes and ultimately to lead to the appointment of a special counsel to continue the game.
Gowdy may have realized that the FBI was used. They were a willing participant because clearly the special matters group did not like the President, but I believe it is spelled out in the FISA application(s). There is a much bigger game at play than what we have seen, which has been outrageous.
My remaining question is how early the intelligence services of our country or "allies" were involved with this.