PHILADELPHIA — Details remained scarce a day after a news report that several Republican lawmakers in Harrisburg had been subpoenaed this week as part of the federal inquiry into efforts to organize a slate of pro-Trump electors in the 2020 presidential election.
But at least one figure whose name has emerged prominently sought to clarify his role in the probe.
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, one of former President Donald Trump's top allies in Congress, said his attorneys were told by the Department of Justice that he is "not a target of its investigation" after three FBI agents confronted him with a search warrant Tuesday and seized his cellphone.
Perry first disclosed the warrant in a statement Tuesday and expressed outrage that agents approached him as he was traveling with his family instead of contacting his attorneys.
In a subsequent statement Thursday, the York County Republican said he has instructed his attorneys to cooperate with the Justice Department "to ensure it gets the information to which it's entitled, but to protect information to which it's not — including communications that are protected under the Speech and Debate Clause of the United States Constitution."
That clause protects members of Congress from being sued for debates they engage in.
Perry was one of the leading figures in Pennsylvania pushing to undermine the state's election results and on Jan. 6, 2021, led the charge on the House floor to throw out the state's electoral votes and the will of its voters.
In between, he was in frequent contact with top Trump administration officials at the Justice Department, urging them to investigate debunked conspiracy theories about widespread election fraud. He has also emerged as a key figure in Trump's briefly considered plan to install an attorney general in the Justice Department who was willing to use his office to pressure lawmakers in battleground states that Trump lost to send electors backing him to the Jan. 6 certification of the presidential election in Congress.
Meanwhile, The Harrisburg Patriot-News reported Wednesday that FBI subpoenas were delivered to the Capitol offices of several state Republican lawmakers this week. That story did not name any legislator receiving a subpoena.
And staffers for GOP leaders in the state House and Senate had little more to say about them Thursday.
The Patriot-News said the information sought centered on Perry and an effort to assemble an alternate set of electors from Pennsylvania as part of Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
That was one element of interest the congressional committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol wanted to discuss Tuesday with State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania from Franklin County.
Mastriano, in the weeks after the 2020 election, pushed for legislation to create an alternate set of electors.
He refused to answer questions from the Jan. 6 committee, leaving his interview after less than 15 minutes and vowing to challenge in court a refusal to allow his attorney to record the session.
Charlie Gerow, a political consultant who ran for governor in the Republican primary, was one of 20 people who signed on as an alternate elector on Dec. 14, 2020. Gerow, who hosted the meeting for the effort in his Harrisburg office, said Thursday he has received no subpoena or federal outreach about that.
Mike Straub, a spokesperson for House Speaker Bryan Cutler, a Lancaster County Republican, said his boss had not received a subpoena and he had no information about any other member receiving one. Straub noted that, as is typical for mid-August, no legislators and only a few staffers are in the Capitol this week.
Jason Gottesman, spokesperson for House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, a Centre County Republican, said, "We do not comment concerning potential or existing ongoing investigations."
A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, a Westmoreland County Republican, referred questions to Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Republican from Centre County.
Corman spokesperson Jason Thompson said Thursday, "We have nothing new to share today."
Thompson told the Patriot-News that "federal subpoenas typically request confidentiality from the witnesses being subpoenaed in order to avoid impediment to the ongoing investigation, so it would be inappropriate to comment on whether members have received subpoenas or not."
Thompson added that "we have no indication" that any Republicans in the state Senate "are targets of any FBI investigation."
In recent weeks, the Justice Department has widened its investigation into the events surrounding Trump's efforts to maintain power and overturn the 2020 election. Agents have interviewed several of the pro-Trump electors from Pennsylvania and other states in recent weeks.
And in June, agents searched the homes of Jeffrey Clark, the Philadelphia-born former Justice Department lawyer whom Trump had sought to install as attorney general to advance his baseless election fraud claims. They've also seized the phone of John Eastman, the attorney behind the alternate electors plan.
