Inspector general colluded with FBI in seizure of congressman’s phone, says House Judiciary Committee
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) Monday opened an investigation into Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz for colluding with the FBI in the recent seizure of Congressman Scott Perry’s (R-PA) cell phone earlier this month. As reported by Frontline News, Perry was approached while vacationing with his family by three FBI agents who demanded his phone.
The seizure, which occurred the day after the FBI’s raid on President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, was ostensibly for reasons connected to events on January 6th, though this was not confirmed by the Bureau. Rep. Perry has been known to be a staunch ally of President Trump.
In a letter yesterday, Jordan, who remains ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, accused Horowitz of perverting the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which is tasked with overseeing agencies within the Justice Department. Instead of keeping the FBI in check, Horowitz assisted the very agency he is tasked with restraining.
“According to reports, the Justice Department OIG used its laboratory in Northern Virginia to assist the FBI in conducting a forensic review of Representative Perry’s phone,” Jordan alleged in the letter.
“Reports indicate that Representative Perry's phone 'was imaged after the search,' creating a forensic copy of the device’s contents — including communications protected by common-law privileges as well as the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause," Jordan's letter states. "The OIG's assistance to the FBI in imaging Representative Perry's phone — in addition to posing questions about why the nation's top law-enforcement agency cannot perform this task itself — raises serious concerns about why you would be willing to sacrifice the OIG’s independence to assist the FBI in advancing such a politically charged matter."
Jordan called the OIG’s move “a serious conflict of interest for the OIG in reviewing the Department’s actions.”
The congressman then demanded not only “all documents and communications” from the OIG and Justice Department related to the seizure of Perry’s phone, but he also requested all records pertaining “to any matter concerning a Member of Congress for the period of January 2021 to the present.”
Horowitz is charged with producing these documents and others mentioned in Jordan’s letter by 5:00 PM on September 12, 2022.
In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Monday, Jordan further slammed the OIG for its participation in an FBI investigation.
“By statute, the Inspector General is supposed to provide independent oversight of the Justice Department,” said Jordan. “How can you do that if you are participating in an investigation?”
“The FBI came to the Inspector General and said, ‘We’re going to take the phone of a sitting Member of Congress. We’re going to take his phone one day after we have raided President Trump’s home, and we’re going to do it while Congressman Perry is on vacation with his family.’
“The Inspector General should have said to them, ‘Are you freakin’ out of your mind? This has got all kinds of Constitutional concerns, you should not do it. But if you do, we will not participate.’ But instead he said, ‘Go ahead and do it and we’ll image the phone.’”
