When Republican Rep. Andy Ogles unveiled a proposal last week to allow Donald Trump to run for a third term, it was a rather obvious partisan stunt. There was, however, a nagging question hanging over the Tennessee congressman’s motivations.
After all, Ogles isn’t just another far-right member of Congress (of which there are many). He’s also the subject of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Indeed, it was roughly five months ago when the GOP lawmaker publicly disclosed that the FBI had seized his cellphone and personal email as part of an apparent probe into his finances.
In other words, it was possible that Ogles introduced an absurd proposal to empower Trump to run again in 2028 because of his affection for the president, knowing full well it will never become law. But it was also possible that he was trying to flatter Trump and get his attention amid an investigation that might lead to a criminal indictment.
Just eight days after Ogles unveiled his measure, it appears there’s some news out of Tennessee. WTVF, the CBS affiliate in Nashville, reported:
Federal prosecutors based in Nashville have withdrawn from the criminal investigation of Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles, an unprecedented move that could signal plans by the Trump administration to drop the case against a Republican ally. With no explanation, Acting U.S. Attorney Brian McGuire filed a notice late Thursday to withdraw Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert S. Levine and J. Christopher Suedekum from an on-going legal dispute over the FBI’s access to evidence seized from Ogles last year.
Let’s pause to review how we arrived at this point.
Ogles was already a scandal-plagued congressman when WTVF reported in late 2023 that the congressman’s financial reports showed he had made a $320,000 personal loan to his 2022 campaign. That might not have been especially problematic — candidates often make such loans — were it not for the fact that Ogles’ financial disclosures suggested he didn’t have $320,000.
Months later, the Republican effectively conceded that his earlier claims weren’t true. He said he’d actually loaned his campaign $20,000, not $320,000, though it remained an open question as to who or what provided Ogles with the rest of the money.
This has become the subject of an intensifying congressional ethics investigation, but perhaps more alarming to the congressman, federal law enforcement took an interest in the matter, too.
The investigation was ongoing when there was a dispute between Ogles’ lawyers and the U.S. attorney’s office over access to evidence on his phone. That matter ended up in court, but before it could be fully adjudicated, federal prosecutors withdrew from the case, raising questions about whether the investigation will continue as Trump and his team take control of federal law enforcement. Of course, if the investigation does collapse, there will be no shortage of questions about how much partisan politics might’ve played a role. We’ll learn soon enough what becomes of the Ogles controversy, but it’s worth emphasizing that the president has already demonstrated an unnerving affection for Republican members of Congress who have been accused of corruption. In his first term, Trump pardoned two former GOP lawmakers who’d already been convicted, and this week, he celebrated the demise of the case against a different former Republican congressman who’d been found guilty by a jury. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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