NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Federal prosecutors based in Nashville have withdrawn from the criminal investigation of Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles, an unprecedented move that could signal plans by the Trump administration to drop the case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.
McGuire's motion said the case would now be handled completely out of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
That follows a recent move by the new Trump administration to force out the longtime head of DOJ's public corruption unit, Corey Amundson. That leaves another career prosecutor, John P. Taddei, a trial attorney in DOJ's public integrity section, on the Ogles case.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville declined to comment on the motion, as did Ogles attorney Alex Little.
For at least six months, the Maury County Republican has faced an FBI investigation into potential fraud involving campaign finance statements he filed during his first run for Congress in 2022 — specifically, his claim on federal reports to have personally loaned his campaign $320,000 of his own money.
NewsChannel 5’s exclusive investigation discovered that Ogles did not appear to have the financial resources to make such a loan, and he later filed amended campaign reports declaring that he had only loaned his campaign $20,000.
A congressional ethics investigation has so far confirmed NewsChannel 5’s questions, with Ogles’ treasurer speculating in sworn testimony that the Republican may have misrepresented the amount of money he had available to make his campaign look stronger in order to “buy the primary.”
Similar allegations led to the indictment of New York Congressman George Santos on federal fraud charges, leading to his eventual guilty plea and resignation.
Court filings show that the FBI served a search warrant on Google in July 2024 for Ogles' personal email account.
Then, on the day after the August primary, FBI agents showed up at Ogles' farm in Maury County with a second search warrant to seize his personal cell phone.
Since then, Ogles' team of high-powered attorneys has managed to keep the FBI from looking at the evidence, arguing that the FBI as part of the Executive Branch should not be able to see any communications regarding legislative business. They had asked a magistrate to allow them to work with the court cull out any evidence regarding legislative matters.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Alistair Newbern has not acted on that legal dispute for more than three months.
As NewsChannel 5 has previously reported, Ogles has appeared to attempt to curry favor with President Trump in recent weeks, introducing a resolution that has no chance of passing Congress to allow Trump to seek a third term, as well as a resolution supporting his bid to take over Greenland.
Ogles also showed up last year in support of President Trump at his hush-money trial in Manhattan.
The second-term congressman still faces an investigation by the U.S. House Ethics Committee over that report of the $320,000 personal loan.