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Republican Rep. Scott Perry demands FBI give him back his phone and stop agents getting its contents – and reveals he is expecting a SECOND search warrant to be executed
- The FBI seized Perry’s phone and captured its contents
- The Pennsylvania lawmaker filed emergency motion to get it back
- He cites Constitution’s Speech and Debate clause
- Agents took the Trump ally’s phone a day after Mar-a-Lago raid
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Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania is demanding in new legal filing that the government return his cell phone and suing to try to prevent the FBI from accessing its data after agents executed a warrant this month.
The warrant issued in early August authorized agents to carry out a ‘forensic extraction’ of the device, as the Justice Department continues to probe Jan. 6th, including the so-called ‘fake electors’ scheme.
Perry, in his lawsuit, argues that his conversations and data as a member of Congress are protected by the ‘Speech and Debate’ clause of the Constitution.
He require the ’emergency motion for return of seized property’ with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
He notes that two of the agents who carried out the search warrant while he was in New Jersey were with the FBI’s Washington field office, and that calls on the matter were referred to the main Justice Department.
Scott Perry (R-PA) filed an emergency motion asking the FBI to return his phone, which agents seized this month, citing the ‘speech and debate’ clause
The Speech and Debate clause has long been used to protect lawmakers from prosecution or other remedies for things they say as representatives and other parts of their official duties.
It states that ‘For any Speech or Debate in either House [lawmakers] shall not be questioned in any other place.’ Perry says it allows him and House lawyers to make their own determinations on what information is protected – rather than have the government decide through its own review process.
Perry filed an emergency motion demanding the return of his phone
Perry has been subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 committee
The filing says agents took the phone away while Perry was on vacation with his family, then returned the physical phone after taking a forensic image of it, then returned it ‘while he was in the company of his family.’
He also seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent the government from going through the data.
The seizure came weeks after the House Jan. 6th committee asked Perry to come in for a voluntary interview.
According to information put out by the committee, Perry was advising key White House figures on Trump’s push to install loyalist Jeffrey Clark atop the Justice Department during the last weeks of his administration.
He was also involved in the effort to have states submit ‘fake’ slates of electors, a matter that is reportedly part of the DOJ’s investigation into Trump’s election overturn effort.