What did Arizona's former attorney general know about the 2020 election and when did he know it? Reports from Mark Brnovich's former office were made public and they show there was no election fraud in Arizona. According to the current AG, Kris Mayes, Bronovich knew about it for months, but instead of going public, he stayed quiet. Now, Brnovich is facing at least eight ethics complaints at the Arizona Bar which oversees lawyers in the state.

If there’s one woman who might have torpedoed the 2020 election interference probe in Georgia, look no further than its foreperson, Emily Kohrs. Given how nothing is shocking anymore, I’m glad I wasn’t the only person who came away thinking I was on crazy pills watching this woman spill critical details about the case. From ice cream parties with Georgia prosecutors to admissions that members of the grand jury were ignorant or dismissive of one invoking their constitutional right against self-incrimination. Kohrs’ media tour was so outrageous that even CNN was aghast about what this woman said on live television. Host Anderson Cooper was dumbfounded, with legal analysts torching Kohrs’ reckless behavior.  Even apolitical figures within the media, like Willie Geist, were not receptive to Kohrs’ all but botching this investigation, despite it being a clown town from the outset. To make matters worse, Kohrs did this media blitz when it was announced that the grand jury had recommended numerous people be indicted. That next step, legitimate or not, might not be possible given this public relations fiasco (via Fox News):WATCH: The Trump grand jury forewoman is loving her 15 minutes of fame.Emily Kohrs is talking to networks about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, subpoenas, and sketches of Sen. Lindsey Graham:https://t.co/mPbMJw55km pic.twitter.com/Y5eKp7YEYZ— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) February 24, 2023Georgia grand jury foreperson: "I will be sad" if the DA decides against bringing charges against Trump ... I will be frustrated if nothing happens." pic.twitter.com/9RfusUCjUX— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 22, 2023The foreperson, Emily Kohrs, then continued her media tour on MSNBC, joking about how "awesome" it would be to personally subpoena Trump. pic.twitter.com/x36YqWWD59— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 22, 2023Emily Kohrs made national headlines this week for offering insight into jury deliberations and whether it recommended charges against Trump and other Republicans in their role in attempting to reverse the Peach State's 2020 election results. Clips from her sit-downs with CNN and NBC quickly went viral, particularly for her bizarre enthusiasm and giggly demeanor, something even Trump foes fear could aid his defense team's effort to dismiss the case entirely. Shortly after her interview with CNN's Kate Bolduan on Tuesday, her colleagues Anderson Cooper and Elie Honig reacted in astonishment. "First of all, why this person is talking on TV, I do not understand," a shocked Cooper said. "She's clearly enjoying herself. But, I mean, is this responsible? She was the foreperson of this grand jury!" "This is a horrible idea," said Honig, a CNN legal analyst. "And I guarantee you that prosecutors are wincing, watching her go on this-" "I was wincing just watching her eagerness to like, you know, hint at stuff," Cooper exclaimed. "There’s no reason for her to be out talking." "No. It’s a prosecutor’s nightmare," Honig told Cooper. "Mark my words, Donald Trump’s team is going to make a motion if there’s an indictment to dismiss that indictment based on grand jury impropriety."CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman offered a similar sentiment on "CNN This Morning.""If I’m the prosecutor, I’m not sure that I want this media tour taking place because I’m confident that Donald Trump’s lawyers are going to use this, just based on what I was hearing last night from people, to try to argue that this is prejudicial in terms of what she is saying," said Haberman, a New York Times correspondent.  Recommended What a bizarre saga, but let’s not forget that while the liberal media is outraged—it’s for entirely different reasons: she said the quiet part out loud. They’re mad because she set ablaze another attempt to humiliate Donald Trump. Second, why are you outraged? You had this woman on your network. If anything, should no indictments occur, thanks to Ms. Kohrs, the liberal media shares the blame in shaping the conditions that led to that determination.

Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.KWC drops heartbreaker at buzzerFeb. 26—Jordan Roland recorded a game-best 26 points, eight rebounds and eight assists to lead a furious comeback for the Kentucky Wesleyan College men's basketball team, but Grant Whisman's tip-in at the buzzer lifted Cedarville to a 77-76 win over the Panthers in their regular-season finale Saturday in Cedarville, Ohio. Wesleyan (15-13, 11-9 G-MAC), which trailed 41-28 at intermission, ...

If there is one thing the people vying to be the next leader of the Colorado Republican Party can generally agree on, it’s that the party is in need of a marketing and communications overhaul if they are to attract new voters into their fold and have a chance of reclaiming political power in the state. “The real problem we have is we’ve got to identify what it means to be a Republican. We have a good national platform, but we really don’t have anything to go on at the state level,” former state Sen. Kevin Lundberg said at a candidate forum hosted by the Republican Women of Weld on Saturday afternoon. “We needed that. It needs to be clear, it needs to be worked through in a very careful fashion so everyone can buy into it.” Finding and communicating that platform was a common talking point during the forum at a pizza restaurant in Weld County that featured all six candidates. It was moderated by Jesse Paul of The Colorado Sun and Ernest Luning of Colorado Politics. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUBSCRIBE “We’ve got to articulate our message in a way that Coloradans believe in, understand and want to get behind. That’s going to take tremendous work, coming together and presenting a unified front that wins elections,” said Erik Aadland, a former congressional candidate who lost a bid for the 7th Congressional District seat to Rep. Brittany Pettersen last year. Colorado Republicans will choose their next chair at a party reorganization meeting on March 11. Current Republican state chair Kristi Burton Brown announced in December that she is not seeking a second term. The leadership shakeup comes a few months after a blistering loss for the party during the 2022 midterms, when Democrats secured every statewide office, won the state’s new congressional seat and expanded their majorities in the state Legislature. “We are in a hole, and we need to start digging ourselves out of it,” said Casper Stockham, who has led multiple unsuccessful congressional campaigns and also ran for state party chair in 2021. Lundbert, Aadland and Stockham are joined in the race by former state Rep. Dave Williams, indicted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, and conservative Christian activist Aaron Wood. Other common ground between the candidates include a support for the return to closed primary elections and disdain for the petition process for candidates to get on the primary ballot. Analysis of 2022 losses The candidates offered various reasons for why Republicans in Colorado lost so badly in November, from a weak slate of candidates to unreliable voting machines. “We put unprincipled, weak candidates forward in top, key positions. We’re losing trust with real conservative voices throughout the state because of the people who go through our process and circumvent the assembly and caucus and petition only onto the ballot and don’t stand up for key issues,” Wood said. We need to not be afraid of people calling us … election deniers. Trump won, plain and simple. Nobody wanted Joe Biden as president ... I am unashamed to say that. – Aaron Wood, candidate for Colorado GOP chair That was one of many digs between the candidates towards former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe O’Dea, who made it on the primary ballot by gathering enough voter signatures instead of the internal assembly process. He went on to lose to Sen. Michael Bennet in the general election. “(O’Dea) is a good example of how the party will fall apart if we don’t understand what the party stands for,” Lundberg said. Williams argued that Republicans failed to provide a compelling contrast to Democratic candidates in the election. “We had a U.S. Senate candidate who said he would vote to codify Roe v. Wade,” he said, referring to the Supreme Court decision guaranteeing abortion rights that conservative justices overturned last year. “Why in the hell would any swing voter want to vote for the Republican party when they are just getting more of the same? If we want to win, we have to boldly articulate who we are and we should be unafraid and unashamed of it.” For Tina Peters, the crushing midterm losses were not the Republican leadership’s fault. Peters is set to begin a criminal trial this summer over her involvement in a security breach in her county during an attempt to prove fraud in Colorado’s voting machines and election process. She has pleaded not guilty to felony charges in that case and continues to be a national figurehead in the so-called “election integrity” movement. “It’s because of the machines,” she said of midterm results. “It’s not your fault.” Trump in 2020, 2024 None of the six candidates would say that President Joe Biden was legitimately elected in 2020. Claims that the 2020 election was compromised have been rejected by experts, courts and former President Donald Trump’s own campaign and administration officials. Biden won Colorado with 55.4% of the vote in the state. “We need to not be afraid of people calling us … election deniers. Trump won, plain and simple. Nobody wanted Joe Biden as president,” Wood said. “I am unashamed to say that.” Aadland instead urged people to look to future elections, which is a similar strategy he used during the congressional race when asked about the 2020 election. He was the only candidate to say that Biden won, though he did not say the sitting president legitimately won his election. “Clearly, Biden won. Whether by hook or by crook, he is sitting in the Oval Office. But this rehashing 2020 is not serving Republicans,” he said. “Whether fraud dictated an outcome in 2020 — sadly, we’ll never know. We need to be looking forward, doing everything we can to make sure our elections are transparent and every voter has confidence.” “A lot of Republicans have checked out of this conversation because of the way we’re talking about it,” he said on the issue of election integrity in the state. Stockham said he agreed with Aadland. Aadland said that as chair, he would champion ballot initiatives to clean voter rolls, strengthen voter identification laws and ensure an auditable process. While most of the candidates pledged official neutrality in the 2024 presidential primary process if selected as chair, they mostly expressed personal support for Trump as the potential nominee next year. The entire candidate forum is available to watch on the Women of Weld’s Facebook page. The Colorado Democratic Party is also selecting a new chair during its April 1 reorganization meeting, as current chair Morgan Carroll is not seeking reelection. Current First Vice Chairman Howard Chou, Democratic strategist Shad Murib and party volunteer Tim Kubik are seeking that position. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE

The foreperson of a special grand jury that investigated whether former President Donald Trump and his allies illegally interfered in the 2020 election in Georgia raised some eyebrows this week when she gave interviews about a process that is typically cloaked in secrecy. But a special grand jury is different from a regular grand jury, and it’s an investigative tool that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis chose to help evaluate the facts in the case.A special grand jury, or special purpose grand jury, is impaneled specifically to investigate any alleged violation of the laws of the state of Georgia.A regular grand jury in Georgia is seated for a limited duration, one term of court — in Fulton County that’s two months. Grand jurors hear everything from felony shoplifting to murder cases and then decide whether to issue an indictment.A special grand jury has no set term and focuses on a single topic. Unlike a regular grand jury, a special grand jury can subpoena the target of an investigation to appear before it, former Gwinnett County district attorney Danny Porter said. When the investigation is done, a special grand jury produces a report on its findings but can’t issue an indictment.Special grand juries are used for an expansive topic that takes longer than a single term of court to investigate and often has to do with public corruption, Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia executive director Pete Skandalakis said.“It’s usually because it’s a very labor-intensive investigation that’s going to take a while to do,” he said, adding the investigation could involve calling witnesses, poring over documents and consulting experts.“The election case would be an ideal case for a special purpose grand jury,” Porter said.That’s because it’s likely a complex case with a lot of witnesses and potential logistical concerns that will take more time and focus than a regular grand jury is able to spend, he said.An elected public official in a county or a municipality within a county can ask the chief judge of the superior court in that county to impanel a special grand jury. It’s generally requested by a district attorney.After receiving the request, the chief judge submits it to the judges of the superior court for a vote. If a majority of the judges vote in favor, the special grand jury is seated. It is made up of between 16 and 23 people who are summoned from the county master jury list.A special grand jury can compel evidence and subpoena witnesses for questioning. It can inspect records, documents and correspondence of state or local government officials and their offices, and can require any person or company to produce records, documents or correspondence related to the subject it is investigating.When the special grand jury finished its investigation, it issued a final report of its findings and also recommended action. The judge has said the report includes “a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia.” But it’s up to the district attorney to decide whether to pursue an indictment. If the district attorney wants to seek an indictment, the case must be presented to a regular grand jury.Skandalakis said there have probably only been a handful of special grand juries used in the entire state of Georgia in recent decades and it’s “very uncommon” for a district attorney to ask that one be impaneled.Emily Kohrs, a 30-year-old Fulton County resident, described some of what happened behind the closed doors of the jury room — including how some witnesses behaved, how prosecutors interacted with witnesses and how some witnesses invoked their rights not to answer certain questions.She told The Associated Press that prosecutors told the grand jurors they could read and watch the news but urged them to keep an open mind.The judge overseeing the special grand jury, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, told the grand jurors they could discuss what witnesses said and what is in the report but could not talk about deliberations.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) is seeking an ethics review into former state Attorney General Mark Brnovich amid allegations he buried findings from his office’s investigation into the 2020 election that showed there was no evidence of widespread fraud or misconduct. In a letter sent to the Arizona State Board on Thursday, Hobbs requested state officials to investigate Brnovich, accusing him of “likely unethical conduct.” The request comes after it was reported earlier this week that Brnovich had withheld findings from his office’s investigation that showed there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud affecting the outcome of the 2020 election. EX-ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL MARK BRNOVICH BURIED INVESTIGATION FINDINGS DISPROVING ELECTION FRAUD: REPORT “This conduct — which is harmful to our democracy, our State, and legal profession itself — appears to have coincided with the time in which Mr. Brnovich and other attorneys in his Office were actively negotiating and then participating in a diversion agreement with the State Bar,” Hobbs wrote. “I urge the State Bar to carefully review … and take any appropriate action.” Brnovich pushed back against Hobbs’s request, dismissing the allegations as irrelevant. “Katie Hobbs is wrong,” Brnovich told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “This is another misguided attempt by her to defame and cancel a political opponent instead of addressing the serious issues facing our state.” Almost a year after the 2020 election, Brnovich and his staff launched an investigation into Maricopa County’s election administration amid claims it was riddled with fraud that led to former President Donald Trump’s loss. After more than 10,000 hours of work, investigators concluded that virtually all those claims were unfounded — but Brnovich declined to release that information to the public, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post.  Investigators prepared a final report in March 2022 that found all claims of error were unsubstantiated, according to the documents. One month later, Brnovich, who was running for a Senate seat in Arizona at the time, released an “Interim Report” of the investigation that indicated his office discovered “serious vulnerabilities” with the 2020 election. However, that version did not include edits from his investigators that disputed claims of election fraud, according to the outlet. Brnovich’s office later compiled a final “Election Review Summary” in September that rejected claims of widespread voter fraud, citing that no group had evidence to back their allegations, according to the internal documents. The former attorney general never released the summary before leaving office last month. The previously unreported details were revealed in documents that were given to the Washington Post by Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who was elected as Brnovich’s successor in November. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Brnovich denied allegations that he intentionally withheld his office's investigative findings, citing policies that advise his team not to publish information about ongoing inquiries. Brnovich's investigation was never fully completed before he left office, as the former attorney general handed it to Mayes once she was sworn in. Mayes later closed that investigation upon taking office, according to the Washington Post. "I am proud of the work our office did with the election integrity unit that was created by the state legislature," Brnovich told the Washington Examiner earlier this week. "While subjected to severe criticism from all sides of the political spectrum during the course of our investigations, we did our due diligence to run all complaints to the ground. Where we were able to debunk rumors and conspiracies, we did so. Nevertheless, we also identified areas we believe the legislature and county officials should address to ensure confidence in future elections."

The governor's office alleges that "likely unethical conduct" took place during Brnovich's 2020 investigation into election fraud claims. PHOENIX — > >Editor's note: The above video is from a previously aired broadcast. Gov. Katie Hobbs is calling on the Arizona State Bar to investigate former Attorney General Mark Brnovich over "likely unethical conduct," after documents from his election-fraud review showed he concealed significant findings. A letter to the State Bar from Hobbs' general counsel, Bo Dul, included a link to investigative documents from Brnovich's election review. The documents were released Wednesday by Brnovich's Democratic successor, Kris Mayes. "I urge the State Bar to review these files and take any appropriate action," according to Dul's letter. The Washington Post was the first media organization to report on the letter, on Saturday. 12News obtained the letter through a public records request to the governor's office. Already, eight Bar charges have been filed against Brnovich since the documents' release by Mayes. "The State Bar has received charges against Mark Brnovich related to the election audit issue. The charges are in the prescreening process.  There is no further public information available," Bar spokesman Joe Hengemuehler said in a prepared statement. A Bar charge is the first step in investigating potential violations of Arizona's Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys. A Bar charge could lead to a formal complaint against the state's former top prosecutor and possible discipline by the State Bar. Whatever the outcome, the process could take many months. In a statement to the Washington Post, Brnovich dismissed Hobbs' letter. “This is another misguided attempt by her to defame and cancel a political opponent instead of addressing the serious issues facing our state,” Brnovich said. The two-term Republican left office in early January.  Brnovich has previously said that he was proud of his office's work on election integrity.  Dul's letter to the State Bar noted that Brnovich's election review appears to have overlapped with his office's negotiations with the State Bar over separate allegations of ethics violations.  > > Live, local, breaking. Download the 12News app   Here are the three big takeaways from the documents Mayes released: 1. In March 2022, Brnovich's Special Investigations Section submitted a report debunking virtually all claims of wrongdoing in Maricopa County's conduct of the 2020 election. That report was never made public.             2. In April 2022, an email from chief special agent Reginald Grigsby was forwarded to Brnovich's chief of staff. The email included several refutations of claims in a draft "interim report" that Brnovich was preparing for Republican Senate President Karen Fann. Fann had authorized the Senate's partisan election review of the 2020 results.  The investigators' refutations weren't included in the final report to Fann later in the month. That report cited "serious concerns" with the 2020 election. 3. In September 2022, Grigsby authored an "Election Review Summary" that was sent to the chief lawyer for the AG office's Criminal Division.  The summary covered 430 investigations that entailed more than 10,000 hours of work.      The memo debunked the "high-profile matters," such as allegations resulting from the Cyber Ninjas election review.  You can read the full letter from the governor's office below: Arizona Politics [embedded content] Get the latest Arizona political news on our 12News YouTube playlist here.

PHOENIX — Arizona’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, is seeking a review of what her office alleges was “likely unethical conduct” by the state’s former attorney general, Mark Brnovich.A letter sent Friday from the governor’s office to the State Bar of Arizona follows the disclosure on Wednesday of records showing that Brnovich, a Republican, withheld findings by his own investigators refuting claims of fraud in the 2020 election and mischaracterized his office’s probe of voting in the state’s largest county.The letter, signed by Hobbs’s general counsel, Bo Dul, calls the conduct “harmful to our democracy, our State, and the legal profession itself.”Brnovich dismissed the allegations. “Katie Hobbs is wrong,” he said in a statement. “This is another misguided attempt by her to defame and cancel a political opponent instead of addressing the serious issues facing our state.”The former attorney general did not respond to earlier questions from The Washington Post about the records but released a statement to local media saying he was “proud” of his office’s work on “election integrity.”“While subjected to severe criticism from all sides of the political spectrum during the course of our investigations, we did our due diligence to run all complaints to ground,” Brnovich said in that statement. “Where we were able to debunk rumors and conspiracies, we did so. Nevertheless, we also identified areas we believe the legislature and county officials should address to ensure confidence in future elections.”The state bar has received at least eight complaints against Brnovich related to his office’s probe of the 2020 election, said a spokesman for the association, which regulates the professional conduct of lawyers and has the power to reprimand or disbar its members.Brnovich’s Democratic successor, Kris Mayes, released the documents to The Post after numerous requests, lodged initially while Brnovich was in office.The records released by Mayes reveal that Brnovich’s team brushed off edits made by investigators when he released an “Interim Report” last year warning of “serious vulnerabilities” with voting in Maricopa County. Memos and other documents also show that the then-attorney general sat on more conclusive reports that systematically debunked fraud claims leveled by state lawmakers and self-styled “election integrity” groups.Brnovich marshaled the resources of his office to investigate those claims while he was competing with MAGA-aligned candidates in a GOP primary for U.S. Senate. He lost that primary in August and left the attorney general’s office in January.“The people of Arizona had a right to know this information before the 2022 election," Mayes said in an interview with The Post earlier this week. "Maricopa County election officials had a right to know that they were cleared of wrongdoing. And every American had a right to know that the 2020 election in Arizona, which in part decided the presidency, was conducted accurately and fairly,”The letter from Hobbs’s office to the state bar argues that the news reports and documents “exposed what is likely unethical conduct” by Brnovich. It also notes that the conduct “appears to have coincided” with the period in which Brnovich and other attorneys in his office were negotiating and then operating under what’s called a “diversion agreement,” an alternative to disciplinary sanction that might otherwise result from bar complaints and instead often involves training and other types of remediation.Those complaints alleged that Brnovich shirked his responsibilities as the state’s top law enforcement officer to represent two state agencies, the secretary of state’s office and the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body of Arizona’s public university system. Hobbs was Arizona’s secretary of state at the time of the complaints and the diversion agreements, which were revealed in early 2022.The letter from Hobbs’s office asks the state bar to review the files released this week and “take any appropriate action.”Stanley-Becker reported from Washington.

PHOENIX — The Arizona Bar says eight complaints were filed against former Attorney General Mark Brnovich. The Bar won't confirm what the allegations against Brnovich are, only saying they're related to his concealing records debunking 2020 election fraud cases.On October 31, eight days before Arizona's November election, former Attorney General Mark Brnovich appeared on Apple TV's "The Problem with Jon Stewart." During the interview Stewart asked, "when you're ready to release the report, when will that be?" Brnovich answered, "sooner rather than later I hope." Stewart then followed up asking "will you go out and vehemently debunk all those issues as vehemently as needed?" Brnovich replied "Absolutely!"According to records released Wednesday by Attorney General Kris Mayes, at the time of the interview Brnovich already knew for months the contents of his office's election investigation. It included disproving all the major findings of the Cyber Ninja audit. Every claim dead people voted. Investigators found no manipulation of election machines. There were several dozen confirmed cases of election fraud. Most of the cases were forwarded to the Attorney General from the Secretary of State and County elections officials. The report also revealed that elected state lawmakers who made claims of election fraud either refused to repeat the claims under oath or offered little evidence to support what they were saying publicly. "He is dishonorable and disgusting," Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the day the reports were released. "The negative impact that had on Arizonans lives and the way some folks have had to suffer because of this." The Secretary of State believes Brnovich should be disbarred. At the time of the former Attorney General's investigation, county and elections officials, as well as election workers across the state, were under siege. Since 2020, 16 elections officials from 10 Arizona counties resigned or retired because of threats or harassment from people blaming them for a stolen election. Friday on KTAR's Mike Broomhead Show, Maricopa County Board Chairman Clint Hickman said, "I am absolutely disgusted. Now I'm getting questions 'Hey, what does the board want to do about disbarment?'"For now, the State Bar will deal with the eight complaints against Brnovich it has. The first step is a preliminary review to determine if the charges warrant the filing of a formal complaint.

A Republican congressman's court battle to protect his cell phone records has prevented federal investigators from reviewing over 2,200 documents in their investigation of former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.The newspaper published links to previously sealed opinions by US District Judge Beryl Howell, chief judge for the District of Columbia, which found that "powerful public interest" outweighed Republican Representative Scott Perry's asserted need for secrecy under the US Constitution.Scott Perry's actionsPerry - a Trump ally who helped spread false claims that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread voting fraud - has sought to prevent the Justice Department from reviewing the contents of his cellphone since it was seized last summer.The lawmaker maintains that his cellphone's contents are shielded from disclosure under a constitutional provision that gives members of Congress immunity from civil litigation or criminal prosecution for actions arising in the course of their legislative duties.Perry's conduct is under scrutiny by Special Counsel Jack Smith's office because of the prominent role Perry played in the lead-up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by thousands of Trump supporters trying to block Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.US Representative Scott Perry (R-PA) receives a tour of FEMA's National Response Coordination Center from FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate (credit: PAUL LUKE)An investigation by the US House of Representatives' January 6 committee last year revealed Perry was in frequent contact with Trump White House officials in the weeks before the attack.On Thursday, an attorney for Perry asked an appellate court to reverse Howell's lower court ruling that his communications were not within a "legitimate legislative sphere." A Justice Department attorney urged the judicial panel not to block his cell phone from investigators.Howell had ordered Perry to turn over 2,055 SMS text messages, emails and attachments out of 2,219 documents contained on his phone, after concluding that they were only incidentally related to his status as a lawmaker and not central to that role as a member of Congress.She said Perry had sought to protect "random musings with private individuals" as well as "political discussions with attorneys from a presidential campaign" and "state legislators concerning hearings before them about possible local election fraud," according to the Post.