Scott Perry says he hasn't heard from FBI since phone seizure

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry said Tuesday that he hasn't heard from the FBI since agents seized his phone earlier this month.

"What happened here isn't about January of 2021. This is about Nov. 8, 2022," the Carroll Township Republican said, in an interview after a visit to a Harrisburg-area church. "There's absolutely nothing I can do about the overreach and abuse of power by the Biden administration."

The FBI seized Perry's personal cellphone Aug. 9, one day after agents raided former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Perry subsequently said that his attorneys were told by the U.S. Department of Justice that he is "not a target of its investigation." 

Perry says he hasn't heard from the agency since.

Perry also repeated his denial that he had sought a presidential pardon or that someone had sought a pardon on his behalf, an allegation he faced during a hearing of the Jan. 6 House Select Committee investigating the events surrounding the riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

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Tuesday's event, held at Life Church Ministries in Harrisburg, concerned how houses of worship can prevent targeted violence and how they can work with local law enforcement agencies.

Aaron Cotkin of the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center spoke about risk management and threat assessment, including what houses of worship can do to identify a potential public safety threat, assess the threat and potentially manage said threat.

That included discussing mass attacks in the past, like the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh and mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.

In an interview after the presentations, Perry sought to distance his criticism of the Biden administration and the FBI from law enforcement.

"We have a long history of trust and believing in our law enforcement agencies. We don't want to disparage them for the reckless or over the top acts of one administration or one administrator or the management at the top," the congressman said. "Most of the folks that we deal with at this level are hard-working individuals that live in our communities and want to do the right thing." 

Perry made it clear that his concerns with the 2020 election remain today.

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"I think that many people in our community have concerns about their confidence in the election and the integrity of our elections, and rightly so," Perry said. "On their behalf, as their representative, their questions need to be answered." 

When asked about an internal poll that showed his Democratic challenger Shamaine Daniels leading him, Perry said he did not comment on opponent's polls. When asked if he would debate Daniels, Perry said if that's what voters want, he would oblige.

— Reach Matt Enright via email at menright@yorkdispatch.com or via Twitter at @Matthew_Enright.