Why it matters that the FBI seized a key House Republican's phone

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Why would the FBI "seize" the phone of a sitting Republican congressman?

Because when it comes to Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Rep. Scott Perry isn't just another member. -@MaddowBlog

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Why it matters that the FBI seized a key House Republican’s phone
Why would the FBI take Scott Perry's phone? Because when it comes to Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Perry isn't just another member.
1:25 PM · Aug 10, 2022

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/matters-fbi-seized-key-house-republicans-phone-rcna42363?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma


It’s not every day when FBI agents approach a sitting member of Congress as part of an apparent law enforcement operation. It’s even more unusual when those FBI agents go so far as to take the lawmaker’s phone.

With this in mind, the fact that this appears to have happened to a key Pennsylvania Republican is a rather extraordinary development. NBC News reported:

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said Tuesday night that the FBI seized his cellphone earlier in the day, less than 24 hours after federal agents searched former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida. “This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone,” Perry said in a statement.

In the interest of specificity, it’s probably worth emphasizing that all we have to go on in this story is Perry’s word. Federal officials have not confirmed any of this, and I haven’t seen independent verification of the GOP congressman’s version of events.

That said, it seems unlikely that the far-right lawmaker would simply make up something like this. So let’s work from the assumption that Perry, while traveling, really was approached by three FBI agents who proceeded to “seize” his cell phone. The question, of course, is why in the world they would do that.

*snip*