Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pennsylvania, responded Sunday when asked if he would recuse himself from any House Republican inquiry into federal investigations into the events surrounding the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, despite being the subject of those investigations.
“Why should it be limited just because someone has made an accusation? Everyone in America is innocent until proven guilty,» Perry said in an interview on ABC’s «This Week» with host George Stephanopoulos.
Perry was pressed on whether any potential participation on a new committee would pose a conflict of interest given that he was among those being investigated.
“So, should all members of Congress who disagree with someone be prohibited from exercising the oversight and investigative powers that Congress has? That’s our charge,» Perry said.
«And again, that’s appropriate for each member, regardless of what allegations are made,» he added. “I get accused of all sorts of things every day, just like all the members who are in the public eye. But that doesn’t stop you from doing your job. It is our duty and it is my duty”.
New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has indicated that Republicans intend to investigate the work of the now-defunct House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riots. In November, McCarthy sent a letter to then-committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, to preserve all records and transcripts and promised to hold hearings in the new Congress on the security lapses that led to the Capitol attack. House Republicans also plan to vote this week on a new rule pack that includes the creation of an investigative subcommittee in the Judiciary Committee tasked with investigating what they call «the militarization of the federal government.»
Perry’s phone was seized as part of the Justice Department’s investigation on January 6. The Republican congressman, an ally of former President Donald Trump who supported his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sued the Justice Department last year seeking the return of all cellphone data seized by the FBI. Perry’s lawyers dropped the case in October, but did not explain his motion to dismiss at the time.
Perry also came under the scrutiny of the January 6 committee, which referred him and three other House Republicans, including McCarthy, to the House Ethics Committee to challenging panel subpoenas. The Jan. 6 committee said it had evidence from «multiple witnesses» alleging Perry’s involvement in an effort to install former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general during the final months of the Trump administration. Clark pushed Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 presidential election and wanted the Justice Department to intervene to challenge the results.
