Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) stated the FBI seized his cellphone Tuesday morning, a day after federal brokers raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida resort and residential, Mar-A-Lago.
Perry advised Fox Information he was touring together with his household when he was approached by three FBI brokers with a warrant for his gadget.
“They made no try and contact my lawyer, who would have made preparations for them to have my cellphone if that was their want,” the lawmaker stated in a press release. “I’m outraged — although not shocked — that the FBI beneath the path of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the cellphone of a sitting Member of Congress.”
Perry added that his cellphone contained details about his legislative and political actions and private conversations with family and friends.
“None of that is the federal government’s enterprise,” he stated.
The lawmaker’s workplace didn't reply to a request for remark.
It’s unclear what investigation the warrant could also be associated to, however the Justice Division has been ramping up a number of investigations into the occasions main as much as the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and Trump’s efforts to stay in energy within the weeks after he misplaced the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Grand juries have issued subpoenas to senior White Home officers in current weeks, together with former White Home counsel Pat Cipollone and two high aides to former Vice President Mike Pence. The FBI additionally seized the cellphones of Trump election lawyer John Eastman and searched the house of former Justice Division official Jeffrey Clark.
The FBI raided Mar-A-Lago on Monday, reportedly as a part of an inquiry associated to categorized materials Trump introduced with him to the resort after he left the White Home.
Perry is a vocal ally of Trump who unfold lies about rampant voter fraud within the 2020 presidential election and labored to overturn the outcomes. He served as a go-between for the White Home and Clark, a former Justice Division environmental lawyer and a key determine within the effort to maintain Trump in energy.
Perry was additionally named by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White Home chief of employees Mark Meadows, as considered one of a number of members of Congress that sought a preemptive pardon for his work within the lead-up to the Jan. 6 revolt throughout her bombshell testimony earlier than the Home choose committee in June.
The lawmaker has denied that declare, saying he by no means sought a pardon.
The Pennsylvania Republican has refused to conform with requests for data from the Home choose committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, saying the panel is “illegitimate.”
“As with President Trump final evening, DOJ selected this pointless and aggressive motion as an alternative of merely contacting my attorneys,” Perry advised Fox Information on Tuesday. “These sorts of banana republic ways ought to concern each Citizen.”
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