Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said three FBI agents approached him while he was traveling with his family Tuesday and seized his cellphone.
The congressman, a Trump ally who played a key role in promoting the former president’s claims of election fraud, did not say why federal agents took his phone but wrote in a statement that the contents of his phone are not the “government’s business.”
Perry said the federal law enforcement agents did not attempt to reach his attorneys before the seizure, but he wrote in his statement that they would have handed over his phone had they been contacted. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment Tuesday evening.
Perry would be the first member of Congress known to have his phone seized as federal authorities investigate efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
“My phone contains info about my legislative and political activities, and personal/private discussions with my wife, family, constituents, and friends,” Perry wrote in the statement. “As with President [Donald] Trump last night, DOJ chose this unnecessary and aggressive action instead of simply contacting my attorneys.”
In June, Perry’s involvement in pushing Trump to get the election overturned became part of the questioning in the congressional hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. At the hearing, former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen testified that Perry pressed him to investigate a false claim that an Italian defense...
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