A top ally of former President Donald Trump, Scott Perry, said that FBI agents seized his cell phone just a day after agents raided Trump’s Florida estate.
John Rowley, Perry’s attorney, also a member of Trump’s legal team, has not responded to a request for comment. Likewise, Washington’s FBI and US attorney’s office denied commenting.
Perry’s remark had no details about what the FBI wanted from his phone. Still, he has been a figure of interest to congressional investigators enquiring about Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Perry, a major ally in the effort, pressed Trump to replace Justice Department leaders and install a naive official, Jeffrey Clarke, atop the department. Clarke had supported Trump’s effort to call on state legislators to reconvene and consider appointing alternate doctors to swing the outcome towards Trump.
The FBI’s initiative of Perry’s phone is not without a recent precedent. For example, authorities seized the phone of Senator Richard Burr in 2020 as a part of an investigation into his stock trading practices. However, the Justice Department later concluded its probe without pursuing charges against him. However, Burr still stepped down from his chairmanship of the Senate intelligence committee amid the controversy and announced that he would not seek re-election to his senate seat.