Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., must disclose to federal prosecutors more than 1,600 text messages, emails and other communications related to the investigation into Donald Trump and his allies’ attempts to overturn the 2020 election, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg found that the majority of the messages between Perry and other members of Congress, members of the Trump administration and allies outside of the government could not be concealed from prosecutors by the representative’s constitutional protections as a member of Congress, Politico reports.
Is typically seen as a broad prohibition on any investigation or action against a legislator based on their speech. So, if a Representative gives a blistering speech against the Governor of Virginia on the House floor, that Governor can’t use that speech to have the representative charged with some sort of crime on the way to Dulles Airport in Virginia.
It’s applies to any communication, so even text messages count, as long as they in any way involve the business of the House. But in this case, it was found that most of the messages were not covered under this clause.