WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has agreed to return U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles' personal cellphone that was seized as part of an investigation into his campaign finances, signaling it's abandoning its probe into the staunch Trump supporter that began under the Biden administration.
The FBI confiscated the Tennessee Republican's cellphone in August 2024 to examine issues with his campaign finance reporting, but it had agreed not to review material from it and his personal email account as he challenged the matter in court.
A judge had not yet ruled on Ogles' challenge when defense lawyers revealed in a court filing on Tuesday that the Justice Department had voluntarily agreed to “promptly” return his phone and destroy the information it had obtained from it and his Google email account.
The investigation, started under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, had remained open under President Donald Trump, a Republican, but had stalled while the government awaited the judge’s ruling on whether investigators could examine Ogles’ phone and emails. The Justice Department's criminal division last year, led at the time by acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti, had concluded the investigation should move forward even after local prosecutors in Tennessee withdrew from the case, a criminal division prosecutor wrote in an email last July urging the Tennessee attorneys to reconsider.
The move comes as the Justice Department is facing intense scrutiny over its pursuit of Trump’s perceived political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat.
The Department of Justice didn't immediately respond to questions on Wednesday about its decision and whether it was formally closing the Ogles investigation. Ogles' lawyers told the court they were notified of the decision during discussions with the department's criminal division, now led by Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva.
Ogles called it a “complete win for the responsible exercise of prosecutorial discretion and respect for the Constitution’s Separation of Powers.” Ogles is still facing a House Ethics Committee investigation.
“From the day the FBI showed up, I said this investigation should never have happened and that the Biden DOJ had no right to rummage through a sitting congressman’s legislative communications," Ogles said in a statement. "Today the Justice Department has effectively acknowledged I was right."
At the time his phone was seized, Ogles said his understanding was that the FBI was investigating “mistakes" in his initial financial filings that had been “widely reported for months.”
Ogles reported making a $320,000 loan to his campaign committee in 2022. He later amended his filings to show that he only loaned his campaign $20,000, telling news outlets that he originally meant to “pledge” $320,000 but that pledge was mistakenly included in his campaign reports.
The U.S. Department of Justice logo is seen on a podium before a news conference, Monday, May 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., speaks to supporters after being declared the winner in his Republican primary race, Aug. 1, 2024, in Franklin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers a delivered a surprising 115,000 new jobs last month despite an economic shock from the Iran war.
Hiring was better than the 65,000 forecasters had expected, though it decelerated from the 185,000 jobs created in March. The unemployment rate remained at a low 4.3%.
The Iran war has caused the biggest disruption of global oil supplies in history and sent average U.S. gasoline prices surging past $4.50 a gallon this week. But the conflict hasn’t done much damage to the American job market so far.
Healthcare added 37,000 jobs last month and transportation and warehousing companies 30,000. However, manufacturers cut 2,000 jobs in April and have shed 66,000 jobs over the past year despite President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies aimed at creating factory jobs.
Labor Department revisions shaved 16,000 jobs from February and March payrolls.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% from March and 3.6% from April 2025, consistent with the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.
The number of people in the U.S. labor force dropped last month, and the share of those working or looking for work — the so-called labor force participation rate — dropped to 61.8%, lowest since October 2021.
Baby Boomer retirements and Trump’s immigration crackdown mean that fewer people are competing for work and that the economy doesn’t need to generate as many jobs as it used to.
Matthew Martin of Oxford Economics says the so-called break-even point — the number of new jobs required each month to keep the unemployment rate from rising — is now near zero. The jobless rate is expected, in fact, to have remained at a low 4.3% in April, according to FactSet.
After the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks Feb. 28, Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. The disruption has caused a painful increase in the price of energy and led many economists to downgrade their estimates for global and U.S. economic growth.
But the fallout isn’t showing up yet in the U.S. job market.
Payroll processor ADP reported Wednesday that private employers added a solid 109,000 jobs in April. The ADP figure isn't a reliable guide to what the Labor Department will report Friday – but the pace of hiring it showed was the fastest since January 2025. And on Tuesday the Labor Department reported that a measure of gross hiring – before subtracting those who left or lost their jobs – was stronger in March than it had been in more than two years.
The economy is getting a boost from big tax refund checks this spring, arising from Trump’s tax cut legislation last year; the refunds allow consumers to spend more freely, giving companies an incentive to add workers in response to rising sales.
The job market is showing intermittent signs of recovery after a bleak 2025. Employers last year created just 9,700 jobs a month, fewest outside a recession year since 2002. High interest rates and uncertainty over Trump’s economic policies held back hiring.
There's been progress this year, but it's been uneven — strong growth (160,000 new jobs) in January, March (185,000) and April's 115,000 and one bad month (employers cut 156,000 jobs in February).
U.S. hiring, though, has been dominated by one industry: Healthcare companies, catering to an aging American population, have added 456,000 jobs over the past year; other employers have combined to cut 205,000 over the 12 months that ended in April.
Still, Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, noted that last month's job gains extended beyond healthcare. Retailers, for example, added 22,000 jobs and construction companies 9,000.
“America’s hiring recession appears to be over,'' she wrote. "Average job gains in 2025 were an anemic 10,000 a month. So far in 2026, the average is 76,000. The bad news is inflation is eating up wage gains again. Wages grew at 3.6%. That certainly won’t be enough at a time when inflation is expected to hit 4%. Americans still have jobs, but they are financially squeezed by surging gas prices and transportation costs.”
The strong hiring data lands as U.S. corporations post solid quarterly performances to start the year.
FILE - Hiring sign for sales professionals is displayed at a store, in Vernon Hills, Ill., Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, file)
FILE - The per-gallon price is displayed elecronically over the grades of gasoline available at a Buc-ee's convenience stop Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Johnstown, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)
FILE - A job seeker waits to talk to a recruiter at a job fair Aug. 28, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)
