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Three FBI agents came to his home and seized his phone on Tuesday, August 9, Perry said in a statement.
On Thursday his lawyer, John Irving released the following statement:
"The Justice Department informed us that Representative Perry is not a target of its investigation. Representative Perry has directed us to cooperate with the Justice Department in order to ensure that it gets the information it is entitled to, but to also protect information that it is not entitled to, including communications that are protected under the Speech and Debate Clause of the United States Constitution and communications with counsel. We intend to follow our client's instructions."
Perry previously called the seizure “banana republic tactics,” according to the Associated Press.
The phone is believed to have been seized as part of the January 6 hearings, which he was subpoenaed for but has yet to appear.
As Politico's report on the statement points out, this confiscation is "not without recent precedent," as authorities seized the phone of fellow Republican, US Senator for North Carolina Richard Burr 2020 as part of an investigation into his stock-trading. It is thought that investigation is what prompted him to resign from the Senate Intelligence Committee and not run for reelection.
Perry is currently running for reelection against the Democratic candidate Shamaine Daniels. If he is reelected it would be his 6th term representing York, Harrisburg, and some of the two cities' suburbs to the US Congress, as he previously represented the area back when it was the 4th district.
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