After nearly two years — and with the help of six defense attorneys — Tennessee's 5th Congressional District Rep. Andy Ogles won a legal victory Tuesday, with the FBI returning his phone and destroying related information.
The Department of Justice confiscated the device in August 2024 and obtained information from Ogles' Google account shortly after he won the 2024 Republican primary, prompting immediate legal recourse from the former Maury County mayor. He has politicized the investigation, calling it targeted harassment from former President Joe Biden.
Ogles has racked up six-figure legal debt related to multiple investigations and probes during his current two-year term representing Tennessee’s 5th in the United States House of Representatives. In this case, he won by appealing to special protections for members of Congress related to voting and deliberation, known as the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.
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“This is a complete win for the responsible exercise of prosecutorial discretion and respect for the Constitution’s Separation of Powers,” says Ogles in a statement released Tuesday. “From the day the FBI showed up, I said this investigation should never have happened and that the Biden DOJ had no right to rummage through a sitting congressman’s legislative communications. Today, the Justice Department has effectively acknowledged I was right. I’m grateful to the Trump Justice Department for righting this wrong and to my legal team for fighting for me every step of the way.”
Ogles retained high-profile local attorneys David Raybin and Alex Little among his six-man defense team. Little has built a reputation recently for successful appeals to the Trump administration. He was involved in securing presidential pardons for convicted West Tennessee lawmaker Brian Kelsey as well as Todd and Julie Chrisley, TV stars who were convicted on fraud charges. Little was also retained by Nadine Menendez, who was convicted last year for bribery charges along with her husband, former New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez.
