Special counsel Jack Smith was partially impeded by a federal appeals court over his bid to access seized cellphone data from Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) as part of the investigation into Donald Trump and interference in the 2020 election.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia overruled part of a lower court's decision that would have given Smith's team of prosecutors access to much of the data sought on Perry's phone, according to multiple outlets. The ruling remained under seal as of Tuesday afternoon.
Federal investigators seized Perry's phone in August last year, the same month the FBI raided former Trump's Mar-a-Lago home to obtain troves of documents held over from his previous administration. The lower court ruling allowed the Justice Department access to nearly 2,200 texts, emails, and attachments they sought from Perry's phone while investigating alleged attempts by Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election.
The lawmaker was reportedly tied to Trump's attempt to appoint an acting attorney general as the GOP president sought investigations into allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Perry's counsel told the appellate judges during February oral arguments that District Judge Beryl Howell was outside of her bounds when she allowed the federal government access to Perry's phone, arguing there were protections under the Constitution's "speech or debate" clause afforded to members of Congress.
Lawyers for the DOJ argued that extending the speech or debate protection too broadly could give members of Congress too much protection that would cover them from almost any type of investigation.
Perry appealed after Howell's ruling in December. The appeals court spent months toiling over the sealed ruling, indicating the three-judge panel spent their time formulating the 29-page decision.
The judges on the panel included Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, who wrote the main opinion. Rao was joined by Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was nominated by President George H.W. Bush, and Judge Greg Katsas, who is also a Trump appointee.
Howell initially wrote that Perry's efforts to investigate alleged election fraud in the 2020 election, which included communications with the executive branch, deemed those contacts unprotected by speech or debate immunity.
FBI agents seized the cellphone last August while Perry was on vacation with his family. He accused the DOJ at the time of launching a partisan effort against him, noting the timing of the raid on Trump's home that took place just days before. The phone seizure took place months before Attorney General Merrick Garland's Nov. 18 appointment of Smith to oversee the Trump investigation, which eventually landed four charges against the former president after a grand jury handed up a four-count indictment on Aug. 2.
Perry filed a civil complaint against the DOJ, seeking to prevent the agency from searching his phone but dropped the lawsuit in October.
Smith's team can attempt to appeal Tuesday's order to the Supreme Court. The three-judge panel gave the parties a week to indicate whether they believe any portions of the ruling need to remain under seal.
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Perry was supported in an amicus brief filed by House Republicans that remains under seal as well.
The Washington Examiner contacted an attorney for Perry and the special counsel's office.