WASHINGTON, D.C., DC — Editor's note: The above video is from Aug. 12.
Rep. Scott Perry has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Department of Justice from reviewing the contents of his cell phone, which was recently seized by investigators reportedly looking into his suspected connection with former President Donald Trump's effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The FBI took the York County Republican's phone on August 9, and it is now in custody of the DOJ inspector general, according to court records and reporting by Politico.
Investigators claim Perry was a key participant in the effort to connect Trump with Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official believed to be an ally in the former president's effort to replace department leadership in order to stay in power.
In a lawsuit filed on August 18, Perry said the DOJ has not yet accessed materials on his phone, and is in the process of obtaining a second search warrant that would guide its review. The second search warrant includes a process to screen out potentially privileged materials, Politico said.
Perry is objecting to that bid, demanding that the government be blocked from scouring his phone and that it return any data in its possession.
“[F]ederal agents should not be given carte blanche to root around in Rep. Perry’s phone data looking for evidence that they hope might further their investigation,” Perry’s attorneys John Rowley and John Irving wrote in the 16-page lawsuit.
The case has been assigned to Judge Jia Cobb, whom Politico identified as an appointee of President Joe Biden.
Perry said in his lawsuit that the warrant to seize his cell phone was authorized by Magistrate Judge Susan Schwab in the Middle District of Pennsylvania’s federal court on Aug. 2.
One week later, agents approached him while he was on vacation in New Jersey with family and seized the phone.
Perry said in the lawsuit that after his phone was taken, he and his attorney conferred with DOJ about an alternative solution to litigation.
One framework proposed by the DOJ would allow Perry’s attorneys and its investigators to jointly review Perry’s phone and hash out potential privilege issues together.
But, Perry claims in the lawsuit, the DOJ demanded that he waive his immunity under the Constitution’s speech and debate clause as part of the process. Perry said he declined to do so.
Perry claims that the data on his phone includes material protected by attorney-client privilege, marital privilege and the constitutional provision that limits most legal action against members of Congress related to their official duties.
“Make no mistake, the seizure of my personal phone has nothing to do with January 6, 2021 and everything to do with November 8, 2022. This breathtaking abuse of power by President Biden and his enablers will never deter me from protecting Constitutional Rights for all Americans, and pushing back against these banana republic tactics from a failed and floundering administration, " Perry said in a statement.