The united states department of justice has agreed to return or destroy material seized under search warrants in the criminal investigation of Rep. Andy Ogles, ending a long-running fight over whether agents could keep or review the data. Ogles said Tuesday that the move was a complete win for prosecutorial discretion and separation of powers.
The agreement covers records FBI agents took from Ogles' personal cell phone in August 2024 and his personal email records seized under a warrant obtained a month earlier from Google. His legal team had asked a court to block agents from looking at the material, and prosecutors agreed not to examine the phone and email data while U.S. Magistrate Alistair E. Newbern considered the dispute.
The case had been centered on possible fraud tied to campaign finance reports Ogles filed during his first run for Congress in 2022. It had also been stuck in limbo for more than 14 months. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville withdrew from the case in January 2025 after President Trump's inauguration, saying future matters would be handled by attorneys in the DOJ's public integrity section in Washington, D.C.
Last December, Newbern asked new U.S. Attorney Braden H. Boucek to tell the court whether prosecutors still planned to pursue the investigation. Boucek replied that the parties had been awaiting a ruling for more than 14 months. Newbern left the bench in early January without issuing one, and Ogles' team then moved to drop its emergency motion after the government said it would promptly return or destroy the property obtained under the warrants. The government also said the emergency motions filed by Ogles were therefore moot.
Ogles said the FBI should never have rummaged through a sitting congressman's legislative communications, and his lead defense attorney, Alex Little, said there is a hard constitutional line around investigations of sitting members of Congress. The department's agreement means the government will not keep the seized material, and it effectively closes the immediate fight over the phone and email records at the center of the nearly two-year criminal investigation.
