GOP rep claims he is not target of investigation after his phone is seized

GOP congressman informed he is a ‘witness’, not a ‘target’, of FBI investigation

A Republican congressman who recently had his phone seized by the FBI is running damage control and insisting that he is not accused of wrongdoing.

Rep Scott Perry went on Fox News on Wednesday to tell viewers that he is not a “target” of the FBI’s investigation — which apparently is centred at least for now around former President Donald Trump’s supposedly illegal obtention of classified documents from the White House.

“While that story blew up, I heard from my attorneys, who talked directly to the Department of Justice, who said that I, their client, am not a target of this investigation,” he said.

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The seizure of his phone occurred a day earlier when FBI agents approached the congressman while he was traveling with family. Mr Perry has sharply criticised both the seizure of his phone, which was returned, as well as the public nature of the law enforcement’s request which he said could have been handled willingly through his attorney.

“If they would have just contacted my attorney, certainly, we would have provided the information necessary, as required by law,” Mr Perry added on Tuesday, speaking to Brian Kilmeade. “But they want this spectacle. They want this show. They want the intimidation.”

His statement mirrored one that his attorneys gave to the New York Times — they also suggested that Mr Perry would take legal action to ensure that information on his phone unrelated to the case would be protected.

“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,” the attorneys said.

Republicans remain up in arms over the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago on Monday, which set off a firestorm of allegations from the right concerning the supposed politicisation of the Justice Department. Many have decried the different standards by which Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were treated over their handling of classified documents, which Mr Trump himself changed to a more severe violation during his presidency.

Allies of the former president have demanded answers from the Justice Department, which has a policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations, while staying silent about Mr Trump’s continued refusal to produce the warrant which agents used to search his Florida residence.

GOP figures like Mr Perry and others like Marco Rubio remain adamant that there is no reason for the Justice Department to take such an unprecedented step even as Mr Trump remains associated with multiple criminal investigations including the January 6 grand jury probe being run by the DOJ in Washington and a separate investigation headed up by state authorities in Georgia.