'Make this case go away': Emails raise alarm that Trump torpedoed probe into MAGA ally

Months before the Department of Justice shut down an investigation into a Tennessee congressman with a reputation for slavish loyalty to President Donald Trump, his lawyer made a plea to top officials.

A lawyer for Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) sent a letter last November to Ed Martin, formerly the pardon attorney and chair of the Weaponization Working Group at the Department of Justice, “seeking the termination of the Department’s criminal investigation,” according to the now-released emails.

When John S. Irving, Ogles’ lawyer, didn’t receive an immediate response, he added Jordan Fox, the chief of staff to then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, to a follow-up email about two weeks later requesting confirmation.

Martin responded: “Received. Thank you.”

It remains unclear whether Martin, who left the Trump administration in September, followed up with Irving. Neither he nor Irving could be reached for this story. It’s also unclear whether anyone from Blanche’s office responded to Irving’s email.

But in May 2026, Ogles’ legal team filed a motion indicating that government lawyers from the DOJ’s criminal division informed them they would return his cell phone and destroy emails obtained through search warrants, effectively signaling the end of the investigation.

“It’s a warning to the American people that it matters who leads,” Ogles said during a press conference after the Department of Justice dropped the investigation, while standing alongside a placard reading, “Weaponized and Wiretapped: Real Stories, Real Corruption.”

“Thankfully, because of President Trump and his leadership, getting back to law and order, this DOJ has cleared me,” Ogles added.

The left-leaning nonprofit American Oversight, which obtained the lawyer's emails through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, has requested that Office of the Inspector General open an investigation into “potential misconduct” by department officials to determine whether the decision not to pursue prosecution was motivated by political favoritism.

“Members of Congress who are political allies of the incumbent president should not be able to evade prosecution by going through improper channels to request leniency or favoritism,” Katherine M. Kennedy, interim chief counsel at American Oversight, wrote to Inspector General Don R. Berthiaume last month.

Ogles’ initial foray into national politics was thwarted by more well-funded Republican competitors, namely Marsha Blackburn, who now serves in the U.S. Senate. He had planned to challenge then-Sen. Bob Corker, a thorn in Trump’s side, in 2018. But when Corker announced his retirement, Blackburn, then a congresswoman, declared her intention to run for the vacated seat, and Ogles dropped out while acknowledging her superior fundraising ability.

Ogles found another opportunity in 2022 in the newly redrawn 5^th Congressional District, which forced a Democratic incumbent into retirement. Ogles faced a former state House speaker and a Tennessee Army National Guard brigadier general in the Republican primary that year.

In May 2022, with the Aug. 29 primary more than three months out, the Ogles campaign announced it had raised $453,000, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent to obtain a search warrant to access the lawmaker’s cell phone. The search warrant application was unsealed last month by a federal judge in Tennessee.

The announcement cited the Ogles campaign as saying that “none of his fundraising totals came in the form of loans,” while explaining that, because of his late entry into the race, “he won’t have to make official disclosures until July 15 — 20 days before the primary.”

But when the campaign filed its quarterly report on July 15, it reported a $320,000 loan from the candidate, while only transferring $20,000 into the campaign account. The inflated loan amount boosted the campaign’s reported cash-on-hand balance to $508,798, when it should have been reported as $208,798.

When Ogles’ campaign treasurer was questioned by congressional ethics investigators about why the campaign reported a $320,000 loan, while only actually transferring $20,000 into the account, according to an Office of Congressional Conduct report cited by a federal judge, the treasurer reportedly said, “It just looks better when you have more money, right? And scare away the competition and buy the primary. That’s my guess, but I — I don’t know.”

Ogles could not be reached for this story.

Ogles’ spiked investigation has drawn comparisons to that of former Rep. George Santos, which also began under the Biden administration. But unlike Santos, who pleaded guilty in 2024 to falsifying loan information to pad his campaign finance reports, Ogles’ investigation carried over to the new Trump administration.

Even in a party where loyalty to Trump — at least before the Nov. 3 midterms — has been a political requirement, Ogles has stood out for his fervent support of the president. Ogles showed up to support Trump at his criminal trial in Manhattan in 2024. Following Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Ogles filed legislation to allow Trump to run for a third term, along with a resolution supporting Trump’s ambition to take over Greenland.

During his press conference in May 2026 decrying the supposed “weaponization” of the Department of Justice under the Biden administration, Ogles presented himself as a target of political retribution.

“I dropped articles of impeachment against Kamala Harris and Joe Biden,” Ogles said. “I had been one of the attack dogs against the Biden administration. The morning after my election, they came to my home, and they seized my phone. And I later found out they’d seized my emails. Now, this is important because our Constitution creates a wall of separation — the Speech and Debate Clause — and the Biden administration was willing to intentionally violate that clause to punish its adversaries, to target conservatives, specifically to target Republicans.”

Ogles has fared worse with voters than with federal authorities: Despite Trump’s endorsement, Ogles lost his Republican primary in August to former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher. Meanwhile, American Oversight argues Ogles’ treatment needs to be scrutinized in light of the federal investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), whom Trump has mercilessly attacked on the campaign trail.

“A congressman under criminal investigation had his lawyer ask Ed Martin — the official running DOJ’s so-called Weaponization Working Group — to make the case go away,” Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, told Raw Story. “An administration that claims to be ending ‘weaponization’ owes the public an explanation when it pursues the president’s critics but drops an investigation into one of its allies. Political loyalty cannot determine who faces scrutiny and who gets a pass. The inspector general must find out whether anyone intervened on Ogles’ behalf and why the DOJ shut this investigation down.”

The Department of Justice did not respond to an email from Raw Story for this story.