Blocked: Court halts Jack Smith’s attempt to access phone records of GOP Rep. Scott Perry
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigative team has sought access to more than 2,200 recordings of communications between Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and the Trump White House and others, but a federal appeals court severely curtailed their mission with a Tuesday Verdict.
A three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals denied part of one motion decision of the lower court This would have allowed Smith’s prosecutors to access much of the wanted content from Perry’s cellphone, which was seized by the FBI under a 2022 search warrant. Federal investigators were quickly denied access to the content after Perry filed a request to keep his communications secret, citing his privileges as a federal legislature.
It stayed with the 29-page decision under lock As of Tuesday afternoon, there are no details of the court’s reasoning.
Perry filed a civil lawsuit against the DOJ to stop the agency from searching his phone, but dropped the lawsuit in October. Smith’s team, meanwhile, can appeal Tuesday’s decision to the Supreme Court.
According to Perry’s attorney, John Rowley, Perry’s phone contains messages about the Jan. 6, 2021 joint meeting to confirm Electoral College votes and a Democrat-backed election bill passed in March of this year.
