NationStates Jolt Archive

Jefferson refused a subpoena from a judge, then the judge signed a search warrant for his offices. The so called unconsitutionality of his office raid is blatantly false. The consitution gives him protection from arrest when going to and from a vote. He ISN'T protected against bribery stings, even more so when JUDICIARY sign off on the search warrant.



House Leaders Unite To Denounce FBI Bribery Raid

WASHINGTON -- In rare, election-year harmony, House Republican and Democratic leaders jointly demanded on Wednesday that the FBI return documents taken in a Capitol Hill raid that has quickly grown into a constitutional turf fight beyond party politics.

"The Justice Department must immediately return the papers it unconstitutionally seized," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.

The statement capped a day of escalating charges and demands.

Constitutional confrontation aside, Pelosi said Jefferson should resign from the powerful Ways and Means committee. He refused.

Resign from a committee?!? Are you fucking kidding me?!? How about resign from CONGRESS and be prosecuted.

At the same time, Jefferson filed a motion asking the federal judge in the case to order the FBI to return the material it seized from his office.

The Justice Department dug in, repeating that the raid was carried out only after Jefferson refused to comply with a subpoena and only then with a search warrant signed by a judge.

The constitutional fight was set in motion last Saturday night, when the FBI raided Jefferson's legislative office in pursuit of evidence against him in an investigation of whether he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bribery deal.

Historians say the search was the first of its kind in Congress' 219-year history. Reaction has crossed party lines and brought in all three branches of government.

Hastert, Pelosi and several other leaders of both parties in the Senate say the weekend raid violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine.

"In the interest of upholding the high ethical standard of the House Democratic Caucus, I am writing to request your immediate resignation from the Ways and Means Committee," Democratic leader Pelosi wrote him.

"With respect, I decline to do so," he wrote back, leaving it to the House to try to pressure him out of the seat or strip him of the post by majority vote.

"I will not give up a committee assignment that is so vital to New Orleans at this crucial time for any uncertain, long-term political strategy," he added.

Away from the Capitol, Jefferson filed a motion that mirrored parts of Pelosi and Hastert's statement. In it, he asked U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas Hogan to order the FBI to return all of the documents taken from his office during the 15-hour search. Hogan, appointed by the President Reagan, was the judge who last Thursday issued the warrant authorizing the search.

Hastert on Tuesday complained directly to Bush that the raid violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine. His second-in-command, Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, predicted a showdown in the Supreme Court.


_______________
US CONSTITUTION -
Article I.
Section 6. ...They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place.

This has nothing to do with "any speech or debate in either House" - it's about abuse of office and accepting bribes which is a felony. Constitution CLEARLY allows for them to be questioned and by extension, investigated and searched.
______________________
Justice Department officials said there was no similar outcry when FBI agents searched a federal judge's chambers in a bribery investigation in the early 1990s. In that case, U.S. District Judge Robert Collins of Louisiana was convicted of bribery, after agents found marked bills in his office.

The Collins case is the only one in which a federal judge's office has been searched, the department said.

White House officials said they did not learn of the search of Jefferson's office until after it happened. They pledged to work with the Justice Department to soothe lawmakers.

Shoes on the other foot now innit?

Either its all constitutional or unconstitutional, whats it gonna be dickheads?

Here's the argument: Since the Justice department is controlled by the executive branch, it would be very easy for the Executive to threaten the Legislative branch by siccing Justice on them without cause. That's what's giving Hastert pause here--that and the fact that he's recently come into the whole Abramoff scandal, and maybe he thinks he's next. But there is the potential or abuse here, and given who's in the White House right now, that's reason for pause.

But Jefferson is a bad case to try to make that argument with because he's dirty for starters, and because he's not been cooperative with prosecutors. That privilege can't be absolute. A judge did sign off on the search, which means that the FBI did try to resolve this in other ways before they did the raid.

It's a lot touchier of a subject that DM wants to make it sound like it is.

there might be a case that congressional offices are privileged by that clause - it doesn't seem completely off-the-wall at least. he's going down anyway, what with the video taped bribery and the cash in his fridge and all.

though one does have to wonder why it was this case that lead to the executive branch searching a congressional office, and not any of the various other ones currently in progress or recently ending in jail time...

Funny what it takes for there to be bi-partisanship.

Congress and the Executive Branch are broken.

I think this is a battle between the Legislative and Executive branches, not that the Legislature is trying to be above the law. They, the legislature, have lost a lot of power to the Executive branch, and this search by the Justice Department was seen as a last straw of sorts. Or this is what I hear off of MSNBC

Shoes on the other foot now innit?

Either its all constitutional or unconstitutional, whats it gonna be dickheads?

They're CONgressman, what do you expect? Throw jefferson in jail.

They're CONgressman, what do you expect? Throw jefferson in jail.

Same with this lady:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/04/politics/main1469885.shtml?source=RSS&attr=HOME_1469885 (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/04/politics/main1469885.shtml?source=RSS&attr=HOME_1469885)

Do you realize how much crap any normal Americans would be in if we struck a officer?


They both should spend time in jail.

(Waits for a post that claims the Jefferson debacle is proof that the Democrats are more corrupt than the Republicans and how it exonerates Dom TeLay and everyone else in the GOP associated with Jack Abramoff.)

Wow, way to twist things. Jefferson proves that Democrats can be corrupt and are corrupt. Republicans can be corrupt and are corrupt. Never said any different. In fact I can't remember anyone (on the right) saying that Republicans were free from corruption. I do remember people saying that Democrats were not corrupt.

To use Nazz's reasoning, every single member of Congress is corrupt because they are not calling for Jefferson's resignation/imprisonment.

I do remember people saying that Democrats were not corrupt.

Do you have a quote for that, boyo?

Wow, way to twist things. Jefferson proves that Democrats can be corrupt and are corrupt. Republicans can be corrupt and are corrupt. Never said any different. In fact I can't remember anyone (on the right) saying that Republicans were free from corruption. I do remember people saying that Democrats were not corrupt.

To use Nazz's reasoning, every single member of Congress is corrupt because they are not calling for Jefferson's resignation/imprisonment.
Umm, there are plenty of people calling for Jefferson's resignation, both from his committee and from the Congress. And it was Nancy Pelosi, after all, who referred Jefferson's case to the Ethics Committee, so I'd suggest that the Democratic leadership is taking corruption in their own caucus far more seriously than the Republicans are, especially since the Republicans have a former Majority Leader under indictment, a former Congressman in jail, and the current Speaker of the House under investigation along with a dozen or so other Congressmen. And that doesn't even get into the Senate or the Executive Branch.

And let me reiterate--since you always seem to overlook this point every time I make it--both sides are dirty, but one side is decidedly more dirty than the other at this point in time.

Same with this lady:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/04/politics/main1469885.shtml?source=RSS&attr=HOME_1469885 (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/04/politics/main1469885.shtml?source=RSS&attr=HOME_1469885)

Do you realize how much crap any normal Americans would be in if we struck a officer?


They both should spend time in jail.

Agreed. The FBI is the only department that I Know of capable of investigating corruption in congress because of it's nationwide jurisdiction.

Delay? Psshaw, throwem' in prison.