FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY SAYS AGENTS SEIZED PHONE

A lawyer who aided former President Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 election results and who has been repeatedly referenced in House hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol said in a court filing Monday that federal agents seized his cellphone last week.

John Eastman said the agents took his phone as he left a restaurant last Wednesday, the same day law enforcement officials conducted similar activity around the country as part of probes into efforts by Trump allies to overturn the election.

The move underscores federal investigators’ interest in the unsuccessful schemes advanced by Trump advisers to help keep the Republican president in power in the period between the November 2020 election and the riot at the Capitol two months later, when Trump loyalists stormed the building to halt the certification of the election results.

Eastman said the agents who approached him identified themselves as from the FBI but appeared to be serving a warrant on behalf of the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, which he contends has no jurisdiction to investigate him since he has never worked for the department. He said the cellphone that was seized contains emails that have been the subject of a monthslong dispute between him and the House panel.

The action was disclosed in a filing in federal court in New Mexico in which Eastman challenges the legitimacy of the warrant, calling it overly broad, and asks that a court force the federal government to return his phone.