FBI Executes Search Warrant on MAGA Lawmaker Likened to George Santos

So much for the law-and-order party: FBI agents recently executed a search warrant for Representative Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, last week over his fraudulent campaign finance reports.

Nashville TV station NewsChannel5 broke the news Tuesday, reporting that sources said the warrant might have been limited to Ogles’s electronic devices. Ogles’s attorney didn’t deny that a warrant was issued, but declined to comment, as did the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Only last week, Ogles won his primary race for the Tennessee 5th congressional district, meaning that he could be under FBI investigation during the general election in November. The Department of Justice generally doesn’t make overt actions in investigations of political candidates 60 days before an election.

In May, Ogles filed amended campaign financial reports, admitting that when he first ran in 2022, he hadn’t loaned his campaign $320,000 as he had previously reported. He also filed more amendments retracting claims made in his financial reports of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and expenditures.

At the time, Ogles was compared to disgraced ex-Congressman George Santos, who is facing criminal charges for inflating campaign fundraising numbers after also reporting loaning his campaign a lot of his own money.

NewsChannel5 reported last year that Ogles didn’t have the resources or assets to make such a loan to his campaign, raising the question of where the congressman got the money from, and if he made some illicit or extravagant purchases like Santos. Like Santos, Ogles was found to have lied about his background, making up details about his education. He also raised $25,000 on GoFundMe to build a garden in memory of his stillborn child, but the garden was never built.

It appears that the law might soon be catching up to Ogles, who has a history of sponsoring futile, symbolic bills. He has proposed sending protesting students to Gaza, tried to lift the gag order in Trump’s hush-money trial, and has tried to require the White House to inform Congress any time President Biden takes a drug “that could alter his alertness, judgment or mood.” It looks like he’ll finally have to spend his time doing something more serious: fighting possible federal charges.