2020 VISION

Rep. Scott Perry Not a Target of FBI After Phone Seizure: NYT

The Pennsylvania congressman’s lawyer said federal prosecutors had informed them that Perry was being evaluated as a witness.

A lawyer for Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who earlier this week had his phone seized by federal investigators, told The New York Times on Wednesday that the Pennsylvania congressman was not a target of the Justice Department’s probe into efforts to tamper with the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors told Perry, who has since received his phone back, that he was being evaluated as a witness in the federal inquiry, attorney John Irving said. “Representative Perry has directed us to cooperate with the Justice Department in order to ensure that it gets the information it is entitled to, but to also protect information that it is not entitled to,” Irving said. Perry is one of at least 11 Republican lawmakers who discussed overturning the election with Trump administration officials, according to the Times. The newspaper reported that Perry “played an especially active role” in efforts to replace Jeffrey Rosen, then the acting attorney general, with Jeffrey Clark, a department official viewed as more loyal to the White House. Clark’s home was searched by federal investigators, acting in relation to the criminal inquiry, in June.