Politico broke bombshell reporting this week, revealing that the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C. delivered a secret, then-sealed ruling back in December that effectively dismantled MAGA Republican Rep. Scott Perry’s bid to keep more than 2,000 messages and documents on his phone hidden, ultimately allowing investigators access to the device and its contents in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, according to the Dec. court filings that were newly unsealed this week.
Yesterday evening, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell made the explosive decision to unseal her momentous December 28th ruling after coming to the conclusion that the “powerful public interest” in the contents of the previously secretive and sealed opinion ultimately outweighed any need for continued secrecy in the matter.
Pennsylvanian Republican and devout MAGA supporter, Rep. Scott Perry, fought tooth and nail to convince Howell to block the US Department of Justice from accessing his phone, which contained a staggering 2,219 documents, much of which was in relation to January 6th, 2021, and the overall effort by Donald Trump and his allies to overthrow Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. Perry’s phone was previously seized and imaged by the FBI back in August of last year in connection to the 2020 election investigation.
Politico reports that Perry “claimed that the records reflected his efforts to research potential legislative decisions — like whether to vote to challenge election results on Jan. 6, 2021 — and therefore should be protected from disclosure by the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, a provision meant to safeguard lawmakers from pressure or intimidation by the executive branch.”
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
However, Judge Howell determined that the MAGA Republican congressman had employed an “astonishing view” of his own immunity that would position members of Congress as somehow above and unbeholden to the rule of law or any political persecution for their actions. Howell ultimately ruled that Perry had to turn over the 2,055 documents stored on his device that he tried so desperately to keep hidden and out of the DOJ’s reach. The report notes that this included “all 960 of his contacts with members of the executive branch, which she said are entitled to no constitutional protection at all. Some 161 items, she said, were proper to withhold.”
In the newly unsealed December ruling, Howell wrote:
What is plain is the clause does not shield Rep. Perry’s random musings with private individuals touting an expertise in cybersecurity or political discussions with attorneys from a presidential campaign, or with state legislators concerning hearings before them about possible local election fraud or actions they could take to challenge election results in Pennsylvania.”
Perry’s contact with not only former President Trump but also Trump White House attorney John Eastman, and top Justice Department aide Jeff Clark — whom Perry played a very large, personal role in pushing Donald Trump to appoint as attorney general in the final, tumultuous days of his presidency — has long been under intense scrutiny by investigators probing the Trump-led efforts to overthrow a United States election. Perry was subpoenaed to testify about this contact with Trump and Clark, as well as his own role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election, by the now-disbanded January 6th House Select Committee, however, he refused to comply.
The congressman’s phone was first seized by FBI agents back in August, while he was traveling with family.
Politico goes on to report:
Thus far, however, investigators have not had access to any of the records because, last month, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to stay Howell’s ruling. On Thursday, those judges heard both public and private arguments about the dispute. The stay remains in place as the appeals court considers whether to leave Howell’s ruling in place, set it aside or modify it in some way.
But the appeals panel’s ultimate leanings remained unclear at the conclusion of the public argument session Thursday. The appeals judges seemed most concerned by Howell’s determination that Perry’s outreach about Jan. 6 was not protected by the speech or debate clause because he was not acting with formal House approval.”
Read the full report from Politico here.
Featured image via screen capture
