Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), the House Freedom Caucus chairman, spoke out against Attorney General Merrick Garland Monday on the Todd Starnes Show after the Feds seized his phone while he was on a family vacation last week.
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Perry was targeted by the Biden DOJ days after former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was raided by the FBI. The Pennsylvania conservative congressman filed articles of impeachment against Garland for “high crimes and misdemeanors” last year.
“Todd, I just got to remind you that there is a separation of power issue here with the legislative branch. You can’t allow the executive branch to use these kinds of tactics to coerce the legislative branch and as the member, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, who has issued impeachment articles against Merrick Garland, we certainly can’t be people in the legislative branch that are intimidated into not doing the work that needs to be done,” Perry told host Todd Starnes.
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“Merrick Garland used an outside influence to put a threat, IDs on parents that were attending school boards. That’s not the purpose of the attorney general,” Perry added. “He should be impeached for that, and I shouldn’t have to be concerned about what the attorney general says about that and using the power of the federal government to destroy my good reputation and the life of my family.”
Perry said he spoke with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and said more articles of impeachment are coming against Garland, who “abused and misused his power, and as necessary, he should be removed from office without a doubt.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH REP. SCOTT PERRY BELOW:
STARNES: [01:18:39] Well, I want to go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line, somebody who knows something about the FBI and confiscation. Our good friend, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Congressman Scott Perry. Congressman, good to have you back with us.
PERRY: Well, thanks so much. It’s great to be with you, Todd. And of course, this is just the latest. Every single day, you think it can’t get worse and then you hear more and more disturbing news. I mean… First of all, why did they confiscate an expired passport? Why did they confiscate any passport at all? Have they confiscated Biden’s passport? The sitting president, maybe he should have his passport confiscated before he goes and gives America away to the Chinese or further to Ukraine. I mean, obviously, we know that the evidence of wrongdoing surrounding the Biden administration and the left in general and all its accolades, that evidence is right in front of us, yet nothing is ever done about it. Nothing is ever done about it, Todd. Yet they continue to speculate regarding the president. People on the right now it’s the Baptist Church, you name it. The right is under a constant pressure and constant oppression. By the instruments of federal power. Meanwhile, the evidence is starkly right in front of us about the West and nothing is ever done. This two-tiered justice system simply cannot stand, and we just keep on seeing more and more evidence of it every single day at the highest level.
STARNES: Congressman, I want you to take us back to your incident with the FBI. Where were you and what happened when the FBI showed up?
PERRY: Well, we had taken our, my wife and I have we have two young ladies, two young daughters, and we took them and our extended families, that includes my in-laws and some of their aunts and uncles, and we share a house at the beach in the summer. We try and get our kids to the beach once a year for a couple of days. And that’s where we were. And I got a knock on the door at 9:00 in the morning. You know, you think, maybe it’s somebody that is there to work on the house or, you know, take out the trash or something? Who knows? But unfortunately, it’s three FBI agents in dark suits, you know, really kind of spooked. And they’re out of place at the North Shore town, but that’s who was there. And they said, ‘Good morning, Congressman. We’re here to confiscate your phone.’
STARNES: And Congressman, what was your reaction when you heard those words?
PERRY: Well, of course, you go through a flurry of emotions immediately. You think to yourself. I’m not surprised, unfortunately. At the same time, you think to yourself, what could this be about? I have no idea what this was about. You know, think of yourself. You know, your family’s inside. What are they going to think? I mean, there’s a flurry of emotions that go through your mind in a moment’s notice, you know? And I said, you know, I actually had the phone in my hand at the time, and I put it in my pocket, and I said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to you’re going to have to tell me more than that before I hand over the phone’, which they did, of course. And look, we we’ve always complied with the law. We’re pro law enforcement. Unfortunately, you know, in this case, you’re pretty sure that these are these agents that are working out in the trenches are just taking orders from a top. And, you know, they could have called my attorneys and we could have done this all a completely different way. That doesn’t create a spectacle like, you know, like the raid on Mar a Lago. It’s very similar, that all can be avoided. But it’s pretty apparent they want the show of force, they want the spectacle, they want the intimidation. They want to show the rest of the world that the executive branch has the power and the authority. And whether you’re a Joe Citizen or whether you’re in the legislative branch, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to bend the knee. You’re going to comply or else.
STARNES: Congressman, here’s what gets me. And by the way, Congressman Scott Perry on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line this afternoon. Congressman, they have been after him from day one. As soon as he came down that escalator, the fight started, and they have thrown every accusation against him. They have fabricated a lot of these conspiracy theories. Nothing has nothing stuck. He’s never been charged with a crime, never spent a day in jail. So, you know, it’s very dubious what happened to Mar a Lago. And I know there are people over at Fox News saying, ‘Well, we just need to calm down, we need to calm down the attitude and the atmosphere.’ I disagree, Congressman. I think now is the time for righteous indignation, peaceful indignation, nonviolence. But this is a time for Americans to be angry.
PERRY: There’s no doubt about it. This is the time for Americans to be angry. And you’re right about that characterization. I mean, this is the same FBI that went along with the boss, in effect, buys the warrant. This is the same FBI where James Comey used classified information improperly to start the SEC, the special counsel, and there was no accountability for that. This is the same FBI that let Hillary Clinton schedule her meetings, so to speak, and was not required to provide any information or allowed to sit with her attorneys, who weren’t her attorneys were witnesses instead, and was allowed to destroy her electronic communications devices and not turn them in for scrutiny. So, you’re absolutely right. But it is a time for righteous indignation. It is time for the American people to say enough is enough. We’re angry about this, but the solution is at the ballot box. The solution is not by being goaded into violence, which some people are saying that’s what the left is trying to do right now. We just can’t we can’t take the bait on that. We need to be angry about what’s happening to standards of justice, the two-tiered system. But there’s a way to solve this, and that’s at the ballot box. And you know, John, tomorrow there’s a primary in Alaska and there is a primary in Wyoming. And we have a chance to show the world that the January six committee is a farce, and the American people don’t support it by making sure that Harriet Hagaman beats Liz Cheney by the widest margin possible.
STARNES: Got to send a message. Got to do it tomorrow. Congressman, did you get your phone back? What’s the what’s the latest there?
PERRY: Yeah. I did finally get the phone back. They told me they would have it for a couple of hours. Of course, you knew they weren’t going to honor that commitment. But, you know, like I said, I was traveling with some of my family. My in-laws just don’t need this kind of grief, you know? As you get older, you’re not always in the best of health. And so, I made one request I made to first I asked how they found me. Of course, they wouldn’t answer that question, and I kind of know how they found me. I just wanted them to own up to it. But the second is I asked them to contact my chief of staff and let her know when the phone was going to be available again, because obviously I didn’t have a phone. Well, they said they would do that. And of course, they didn’t, they came back to the home and, you know, they had to bug, my father-in-law, you know, and this is not the news that a father-in-law wants to hear. And when I went to get the phone from them, I asked them directly why they couldn’t honor their commitment. And they said, well, we couldn’t get we couldn’t find him. We couldn’t get in touch with her. This is the FBI who told me when I asked them, how did you find me here? They said, it’s what we do. I don’t think it’s too hard to find the chief of staff of a member of Congress, but apparently, they couldn’t be bothered. So that’s really the unfortunate thing about this, among other things. And Todd, I just got to remind you that there is a separation of power issue here with the legislative branch. You can’t allow the executive branch to use these kinds of tactics to coerce the legislative branch and as the member, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, who has issued impeachment articles against Merrick Garland, we certainly can’t be people in the legislative branch that are intimidated into not doing the work that needs to be done. Merrick Garland used an outside influence to put a threat IDs on parents that were attending school boards. That’s not the purpose of the attorney general. He should be impeached for that, and I shouldn’t have to be concerned about what the attorney general says about that and using the power of the federal government to destroy my good reputation and the life of my family.
STARNES: Congressman, we’re getting a lot of questions from people. And they want to know if the Republicans retake the House of Representatives. Will you guys go after Merrick Garland and these rogue agents?
PERRY: Well, you know, Todd, I certainly will. Like I said, I’ve already issued the impeachment articles. I know there are more coming. I just got off the phone with Jim Jordan and he agrees Merrick Garland better clear his calendar and set up a court over at the Judiciary hearing room, because I think he’s going to spend a lot of time there answering questions about what he’s done and how he’s abused and misused his power. And as necessary, he should be removed from office without a doubt.
STARNES: All right, Congressman, we appreciate your great insight on this crisis. I mean, this is a brewing constitutional crisis in this country. And we’ve got to get to the bottom of it. And I think you’re right. We actually are going to fight this fight at the ballot box. Thank you, Congressman.
PERRY: Thank you very much. Thanks for the opportunity, Todd. God bless you and your audience.