The seized cell phone of Rep. Scott Perry contained 930 records where the Pennsylvania Republican often tried to cajole executive branch officials around the 2020 presidential election, according to newly released court papers in the fight over his cell phone data.
“Rep. Perry’s communications with Executive Branch officials, as reflected in the responsive records, demonstrate that he welcomed, rather than resisted, and indeed often initiated these communication [redacted],” Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court wrote in one of four unsealed opinions, after she had reviewed the records and decided to release them to prosecutors.
Around the 2020 election, the Pennsylvania lawmaker had been in touch with President Donald Trump and powerful Trump backers, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and others who pushed false claims of election fraud.
His communications with the executive branch, she wrote, were “proactive, persistent and protracted.”
The newly available court records provide more insight into the scope of the ongoing fight over Perry’s phone, which is part of special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal investigation around January 6, 2021. In total, Howell on Friday unsealed four opinions with redactions that she wrote related to the Justice Department’s ability to access more than 2,200 records on the congressman’s cell phone, after the FBI seized the device last year.
Howell also called Perry’s phone compendium a “multi-pronged push for Executive Branch officials to take more aggressive action,” likely in response to suspicions of election fraud, and deemed those cell phone records not covered by congressional protection.
In another part of her rulings, Howell wrote how Perry’s communications with private individuals shouldn’t stay secret…
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