The Justice Department appears to be abandoning an investigation into Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican who is one of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters in the House.
The inquiry involving Ogles’ campaign finances began in 2024 under the Biden administration. The Justice Department agreed this week to return Ogles’ personal phone, which the FBI seized two years ago.
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The investigation concerned campaign finance questions that arose when Ogles reported making a $320,000 loan to his campaign committee during his first run for Congress in 2022. WTVF-TV of Nashville reported that Ogles lacked the financial resources to make such a significant loan.
Ogles later amended a campaign finance filing to show he only loaned $20,000.
When the discrepancy emerged, he told news outlets that he had originally intended to lend the full $320,000, but the pledge was mistakenly included in his campaign reports.
In August, 2024, the FBI confiscated his phone to further investigate his finances. However, it agreed not to review material from it or his personal email while he fought to challenge the seizure in court. His challenge was still pending when the government announced it was returning his device.
Ogles’ lawyer, Alex Little, applauded the Justice Department’s decision.
“There’s a hard constitutional line around investigations of sitting members of Congress, and this case shows why that line exists,” Little said in a statement to WTVF.
Ogles remains under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. In a report, the committee quoted Ogles’ campaign treasurer as saying the congressman may have overstated the amount of the loan to give the impression he would be able to “buy the primary.”
Ogles is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and has drawn criticism for some of his rhetoric. In March, he called for a ban on immigration from countries with large Muslim populations. “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” he said at the time.
DOJ continues other pursuits
While the Justice Department signaled an end to its Ogles investigation, it has launched numerous probes into politicians, many of whom Trump sees as adversaries.
On Wednesday, for instance, the FBI raided the district office of Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas in Portsmouth, Virginia. She was a leader of the state’s recent congressional redistricting initiative, an effort that proved successful in April when voters approved a constitutional amendment authorizing a new congressional map.
Since Trump’s return to office, the department has also targeted former FBI Director James Comey, Democratic New York state Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and others.
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