Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Cal., said it’s possible the Justice Department will consider the GOP’s fraudulent voter scheme criminal. The Justice Department is investigating Republican efforts to sway the 2020 election, and Rep. Scott Perry, an ally of former President Donald Trump, is apparently a key figure in the investigation. Perry’s phone was seized on Tuesday and several Pennsylvania lawmakers were subpoenaed by the FBI to seek information on the Pennsylvania Republican. The California lawmaker called the seizure “impressive” because it should have established “probable cause” that Perry had committed a crime. “And the fact that it was a member of Congress on the phone, I think, would make the Department of Justice even more confident, or should be confident, that they had probable cause,” Schiff told CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan. Nation”. “And that also suggests that the Department believes that this fraudulent election conspiracy was a violation of the law, which I think it certainly was. So I think it’s very important. All of that,” he added. Trump’s allies have been accused of trying to create alternative lists of electors to support Trump in seven states – including Pennsylvania – to overturn Biden’s presidential victory. Perry said he introduced Trump to Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department official who believed the election was inaccurate. The Jan. 6 House Select Committee found that Clark, whom Trump sought to install as attorney general, drafted an unsent letter to officials in six states suggesting they choose surrogate electors. Perry called the seizure of his phone an “abuse of power” on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Anyone who doesn’t bend the knee, who doesn’t bully, who doesn’t parrot the narrative, is now subject to these kind of third-world banana republic tactics,” he added. Perry, who was endorsed by Trump in 2018 and 2020, was the first congressional lawmaker to have his phone seized during the investigation, the Washington Post reported. Text messages obtained by the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 found that Perry texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows five days after President Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election to “get it straight.” the Dominion voting machines. Perry claimed that “the British” and the CIA manipulated the vote. Former Trump aides said Perry, who has been a staunch supporter of Trump and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, is one of six GOP lawmakers who sought preemptive pardons after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Perry and Schiff did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
