DOJ Swoops in to Save MAGA Representative From Criminal Probe
The Justice Department has dropped thousands of criminal cases in order to aid and abet Donald Trump’s agenda — and now it appears poised to help some of the president’s allies.
The DOJ appears to be preparing to end a nearly two-year investigation into Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, WTVF reported Tuesday. The agency has so far returned his phone and destroyed the evidence it collected from it, according to the Tennessee Lookout.
The update came through a court motion from Ogles’ team, overturning a long-pending emergency motion that had blocked federal authorities from reviewing evidence on his phone and email.
“In discussions with the Office of the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, the Government informed defense counsel that it would promptly return or destroy property obtained pursuant to the respective search warrants at issue,” the motion states. “The emergency motions filed by Congressman Ogles on these issues are therefore moot. »
Ogles’ phone was seized by the FBI shortly after his 2024 primary victory, but the investigation was related to discrepancies that emerged during his 2022 election, when he filed a campaign finance report claiming he had loaned his campaign $320,000. That detail raised alarms in 2024, when Ogles filed another campaign finance report to acknowledge that he had only loaned the campaign $20,000.
The following year, a U.S. Congressional Ethics Committee found “substantial reason to believe” that Ogles had violated federal campaign finance laws by inflating his offices’ fundraising through a personal loan.
The lawmaker’s legal defense claimed that the FBI – as part of the executive branch – had no right to review the personal communications of a serving member of the legislative branch.
“From the day the FBI arrived, I said this investigation should never have happened and that Biden’s DOJ had no right to pry into the legislative communications of a sitting member of Congress,” Ogles. said in a press release. “I am grateful to the Trump Justice Department for righting this wrong.”
But a completed DOJ investigation doesn’t end Ogles’ legal troubles: The House Ethics Committee is still investigating him.
