A federal appeals court ordered review of a lower court ruling granting the Department of Justice (DOJ) access to Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry’s phone records Tuesday.
In December, District Judge Beryl Howell granted DOJ investigators on the probe into alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election access to over 2,000 of Perry’s messages, despite his objections that doing so would violate the Constitution’s “speech or debate” protection for lawmakers. The appeals court vacated Howell’s decision in part Tuesday and sent the case back to the lower court for “the correct standard” to be applied to communications “regarding alleged election fraud during the period before Congress’s vote certifying the 2020 election.”
The court’s opinion referenced in the order remains sealed, leaving its extent and reasoning unclear.
Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee,…
