Last week was rather eventful for far-right Rep. Andy Ogles. On Thursday, for example, the Tennessee Republican fended off a well-funded primary challenger, leaving the incumbent well positioned to win a second term in the fall.
A day later, the FBI stopped by the congressman’s home for a visit. The New York Times reported:
The F.B.I. has seized the phone of Representative Andy Ogles, Republican of Tennessee, as it carries out an apparent investigation into his campaign finances. The bureau served a search warrant at Mr. Ogles’s home in central Tennessee on Friday and took his phone, according to his lawyer, G. Kline Preston IV.
The news was first reported by WTVF, the CBS affiliate in Nashville. While the reporting hasn’t been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, the congressman’s lawyer has confirmed that the FBI obtained a search warrant for Ogles’ phone, and the GOP lawmaker cooperated.
The lawyer also told the Times that “it was his understanding that the search was related to allegations of financial improprieties.”
For his part, the congressman himself issued a brief statement by way of social media, which read, “It has been widely reported for months that my campaign made mistakes in our initial financial filings. We have worked diligently with attorneys and reporting experts to correct the errors and ensure compliance going forward. Last Friday, the FBI took possession of my cell phone.”
As regular readers know, this controversy has been percolating for several months. In fact, it was last fall when WTVF in Tennessee reported that Ogles’ finance reports showed that he’d made a $320,000 personal loan to his campaign. That was difficult to believe, since the congressman’s financial disclosures suggested he didn’t have $320,000.
In May, Ogles effectively conceded that his earlier claims weren’t true. In fact, the House Freedom Caucus member filed amendments to his campaign finance reports, telling the Federal Election Commission that he actually loaned his campaign $20,000, instead of the $320,000.
This, of course, led to some fairly obvious questions about the possible sources of the other $300,000.
Complicating matters is that Ogles doesn’t exactly have a reservoir of credibility to draw from as he faces an FBI probe. On the contrary, he has a staggering pattern of deceptions.
Indeed, Ogles is starting to resemble another House Republican who was caught lying about his background and facing FBI scrutiny over his controversial finances. His name was former Rep. George Santos.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
