Ethics complaint accuses Congressman Scott Perry of 'misconduct' in aiding Trump in 2020

Two Pennsylvania community activists have filed a congressional ethics complaint against U.S. Rep. Scott Perry for trying to help President Donald Trump undo his 2020 election loss.

The complaint charges the GOP congressman from York County with misconduct for spreading baseless conspiracy theories, pressuring federal officials to investigate his claims of voting fraud and trying to install an acting attorney general willing to help contest the election results.

The House Committee on Ethics, which is receiving the complaint, will now decide whether to create an investigative subcommittee to delve into the document’s allegations, according to a news release announcing the complaint. Specifically, the complaint asks the committee to explore whether Perry is guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements to the executive branch, obstructing official proceedings or several other violations.

“We were appalled and shocked about his behavior,” said Susan Roller, a Camp Hill resident who co-signed the complaint. “We feel that we deserve better.”

Though the Jan. 6 select committee has subpoenaed Perry and shed light on some of his conduct after the 2020 election, Roller said she and fellow activist Marlene Kanuck feel more needs to be done before November.

“There just hasn’t been enough publicized about what he has done,” Kanuck, of Derry Township, said. “The election is coming up, and it’s coming up quickly.”

Perry is facing an election challenge from Democrat Shamaine Daniels.

His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint.

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Roller and Kanuck, both of whom are Perry’s constituents, submitted the complaint Thursday with help from the organizations Indivisible and Free Speech for People.

As information continues to come out about the Jan. 6 attacks, “it is clearer than ever that Rep. Perry played a central inside role in one of the worst attacks on our democracy in our country’s history,” said Meagan Hatcher-Mays, democracy policy director at Indivisible, a group that works to advance progressive values.

New evidence has emerged over the summer about Perry’s role in helping Trump and his supporters try to challenge President Joe Biden’s win.

Text messages released by the Jan. 6 select committee show the congressman in 2020 was trying to convince high-level White House staff that the Italians were using satellites to tamper with vote totals. Perry also pushed a conspiracy theory that the British were manipulating voting machines and that American intelligence officials were in on the scheme.

The congressman advocated for replacing the acting attorney general with Jeffrey Clark, a justice department official who became a key ally to Trump in his quest to overturn the election, according to the New York Times.

The paper also reported that Perry created a dossier of unsubstantiated voter fraud claims from Pennsylvania and demanded that the justice department review the allegations. A federal prosecutor based in Pennsylvania later found the claims were “not well founded.”

The Jan. 6 panel has also heard testimony that Perry requested a presidential pardon following the Capitol riots, an assertion that the congressman has repeatedly denied.

Last month, agents with the FBI seized the congressman’s cell phone. Perry said the agency told his lawyers that he was not under investigation, and he’s since accused federal law enforcement of carrying out a politically motivated inquiry.

The congressman filed a lawsuit in late August seeking to block federal agents from looking at his phone’s contents.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: PA activists demand U.S. House ethics investigation of Rep. Scott Perry