Perry’s attorney John Irving declined to comment for this piece. Text messages on the cellphone could provide evidence of criminal intent in efforts to thwart the outcome of the election.” But that does not mean that a member of Congress can never be questioned or investigated. “That extends to measures stored on their phones. “A member of Congress has a legitimate privilege under the speech or debate clause, which prevents a member from being questioned about legislative matters,” former US attorney for eastern Michigan Barbara McQuade told the Guardian. Meadows was reportedly subpoenaed in January by a grand jury in DC as part of the special counsel’s probe into January 6 and Trump’s efforts to stay in power despite losing the election.įormer prosecutors say Thursday’s hearing could lead to a ruling that allows investigators some access to communications on Perry’s cellphone that involve potential criminal conduct. Perry also exchanged at least 62 emails with Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, including some about election conspiracies such as “Italygate”, a wacky fantasy about how an Italian defense contractor worked with top CIA officials to use military satellites to switch votes from Trump to Biden. The justice department’s efforts to gain access to Perry’s cellphone stem partly from Perry’s role introducing Trump to Jeffrey Clark, a former senior DoJ environmental lawyer who plotted with Trump to make Clark the acting attorney general in an abortive scheme to help Trump push election fraud myths in Georgia and other key states.įederal agents seized Perry’s cellphone after other agents raided Clark’s Virginia home last June and took his cellphone as part of the DoJ inquiry. Perry, whose lawyer has said the DoJ informed Perry he was not a target after his phone was seized, was perhaps Trump’s most zealous House ally when he sought to overturn his loss with baseless charges that the election was rigged.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |