A federal appeals court in Washington released an opinion Wednesday that found a constitutional protection for members of Congress should limit what information federal investigators can access on a phone seized last year from Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.
A unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit comes in what has largely been a sealed case related to Special Counsel John L. “Jack” Smith’s probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Under the ruling, many of Perry’s communications with fellow members about claims of fraud or efforts to overturn the 2020 election would remain off limits to investigators, and a lower court judge will have to do a “communication-by-communication” review of whether investigators can see Perry’s other communications with fellow members or Trump administration officials or with the general public.
