The U.S. Department of Justice obtained a new warrant on Wednesday to search the phone of former President Donald Trump's election attorney, John Eastman.
Eastman advised Trump on the 2020 election and had his phone seized previously when investigators took it last month as part of an ongoing probe into Trump's actions to try and overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, The Hill reported.
According to Reuters, Eastman also spoke at a Trump rally before the Jan. 6, 2021 riot on the U.S. Capitol involving Trump supporters.
Prosecutors wrote in a court filing in a New Mexico federal court, “The United States is in possession of Plaintiff’s cell phone, as well as a manual screen capture of certain contents of the device obtained by an agent not associated with the investigation team.”
Court documents said, "Plaintiff’s cell phone and the manual screen capture currently are in Northern Virginia, in the possession of federal agents with the Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General. On July 12, 2022, a federal agent obtained a second federal search warrant from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that authorizes review of the contents of Plaintiff’s cell phone and the manual screen capture."
Eastman has filed a motion to try and get a judge to order that his phone be returned, and investigators be blocked from their search while the case moves forward.
