Federal judge orders texts, emails on Rep. Scott Perry's phone be turned over to prosecutors in...

Thousands of communications — including text messages and emails — on the cellphone of Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania can be turned over to federal investigators as part of the special counsel's 2020 election probe into former President Donald Trump and his allies, the chief judge of Washington, D.C.'s federal court ruled Tuesday, overriding the congressman's past claims of constitutional protection.

Chief U.S. District Judge John Boasberg wrote late Tuesday that prosecutors will be permitted to access 1,659 of the more than 2,000 records found on Perry's personal device, which was seized in August 2022.

The data that could now be available to investigators includes communications between Perry and individuals not employed by the federal government "regarding what had occurred during the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021," and messages with then-employees of the Trump administration "regarding the procedures that Vice President Pence must follow under the Electoral Count Act," according to the court order.

Perry and his attorneys had urged federal judges to shield his communications from prosecutors, arguing the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution protected his cellphone records from being used in an investigation. He contended his work as a federal legislator shielded the contents of his phone from being accessed because they were used as he carried out his congressional duties.

Boasberg's predecessor as chief judge, Judge Beryl Howell, initially ruled all but 164 of the records on the phone could be turned over to investigators.

The Pennsylvania Republican appealed the decision, and a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the thousands of messages back to the lower courts for review under a stricter interpretation of the protections afforded to Perry under the Speech and Debate clause.