FBI Raid on Lawmaker's Office Is Questionedby Republican Leaders... - Page 3 - New England Patriots Forums

***DarrylS*** · 05-24-2006, 01:19 PM

Guess this is not going away, Dennis Hastert is asking that all of his stuff be returned.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196736,00.html

WASHINGTON â€” House Speaker Dennis Hastert demanded Wednesday that the FBI surrender documents it seized and remove agents involved in the weekend raid of Rep. William Jefferson's office, under what lawmakers of both parties said were unconstitutional circumstances.

"We think those materials ought to be returned," Hastert said, adding that the FBI agents involved "ought to be frozen out of that (case) just for the sake of the constitutional aspects of it."

The Saturday night search of Jefferson's office on Capitol Hill brought Democrats and Republicans together in rare election-year accord, with both parties protesting agency conduct they said violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine.

***Patters*** · 05-24-2006, 05:37 PM

Give Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats credit for asking Jefferson to step down from the Ways and Means Committee, and most of the liberal blogs support her move. Funny, how the Democrats and their supporters move so much more quickly than the Republicans and their supporters did with Tom Delay.

***IcyPatriot*** · 07-10-2006, 07:09 PM

UPDATE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...07-10-16-33-19

Tomorrow...the Capitol will see a high volume of boxes leaving the building...bet on that.

Quote:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Monday upheld the FBI's unprecedented raid of a congressional office, saying that barring searches of lawmakers' offices would turn Capitol Hill into "a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime."

Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan rejected requests from lawmakers and Rep. William Jefferson to return material seized by the FBI in a May 20-21 search of Jefferson's office.

The overnight search was part of a 17-month bribery investigation of Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat.

In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments by Jefferson and a bipartisan group of House leaders that the raid violated the Constitution's protections against intimidation of elected officials.

Hogan acknowledged the "unprecedented" nature of the case. But he said the lawmakers' "sweeping" theory of legislative privilege "would have the effect of converting every congressional office into a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime."

A member of Congress is bound by the same laws as ordinary citizens, said the judge, who had approved the FBI's request to conduct the overnight search of Jefferson's office.