Posted on 05/26/2006 12:37:21 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Heeding President Bush's order, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist summoned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to his Capitol Hill office Friday to defuse their constitutional confrontation over last weekend's FBI search of a lawmaker's office.
"We've been working hard already and we'll continue to do so pursuant to the president's order," Gonzales said on his way into Frist's suite just off the Senate floor.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, meanwhile, said he too is working with the Justice Department to set up guidelines for the FBI to review materials it seized during the raid of the offices of Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La.
"But that is behind us now," Hastert said in USA Today. "I am confident that in the next 45 days, the lawyers will figure out how to do it right."
More broadly, the talks were aimed at setting up guidelines for any future searches that might stem from federal investigations, such as the probe centered on convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The developments came after Bush ordered that the materials seized from Jefferson's office be sealed for 45 days, calling a time out in a fight between the legislative and executive branches over constitutional prerogatives.
Bush did not take sides in his order, and his spokesman refused to say which party has the president's sympathies. "I'm not going to get into where the president falls on the issue," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Friday. "Again the whole purpose here is to get a resolution on it."
Snow, meantime, meantime, branded as "false, false, false" any charges that the Justice Department, led by Gonzales, had tried to intimidate Hastert.
Lawmakers from both parties complained that the weekend search, said to be the first in congressional history, was an abuse of executive powers. So Bush tried on Thursday to calm the tone.
"Our government has not faced such a dilemma in more than two centuries," he said in a statement. "Yet after days of discussions, it is clear these differences will require more time to be worked out."
Bush granted one of Hastert's demands, directing the FBI to surrender documents and computerized records taken from Jefferson's office.
The president told Solicitor General Paul Clement, who has a separate office in the Justice Department, to take custody of the material.
Bush said no one is above the law and that he continued to support the investigation of Jefferson. The eight-term congressman is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars to facilitate a telephone investment deal in Africa.
"Those who violate the law — including a member of Congress — should and will be held to account," Bush said. "This investigation will go forward and justice will be served."
Meanwhile, a former aide to Jefferson was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the bribery scandal investigation involving the congressman.
Brett Pfeffer, 37, of Herndon, Va., pleaded guilty in January to two bribery-related charges: conspiracy to commit bribery and aiding and abetting bribery of a public official. Jefferson's name did not come up in the hearing in federal court, but other documents have made clear he is that public official.
Specifically, Pfeffer admitted to helping broker deals between Jefferson and a northern Virginia investment executive for whom Pfeffer worked. That executive, who has not been identified in court documents, agreed to pay bribes to Jefferson after Pfeffer said the congressman would require it.
Heads of the battling institutions backed away from the confrontation, for now.
Gonzales said earlier that Bush's move would provide "time to reach a permanent solution that allows this investigation to continue while accommodating the concerns of certain members of Congress."
Jefferson said the order was "a good first step but ultimately, the answer would be to return the documents."
The pause came five days after the FBI, acting on a search warrant signed a week ago by a federal judge, raided Jefferson's office as part of the bribery investigation.
In an affidavit supporting the search warrant, the FBI said it had videotaped Jefferson last summer taking $100,000 in bribe money and that agents had found $90,000 of that cash stuffed in a freezer in his home.
Jefferson has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.
More than a dozen agents involved in the search took two boxes of paper records and made a copy of everything on Jefferson's personal computer, Jefferson's lawyer said in a legal filing Wednesday demanding the return of the materials.
The only items specifically identified by lawyer Robert Trout as having been taken by the FBI are letters requesting donations to the legal defense fund Jefferson created to defray his legal bills.
The FBI and prosecutors refused to allow lawyers for Jefferson or the House of Representatives to be present for the search, Trout and House officials said.
The only "constitutional confrontation" is in Frist's head.
Why?
There have been many congressmen under investigation in that time.
I agree that the 45 day period is good to sort out the procedures.
There seems to be some confusion among lawmakers on Capitol Hill (as well as some journalists) about whether the search of Rep. William Jefferson's office raises serious separation of powers issues. What is being overlooked in the argument is the extraordinary care the Justice Department has taken to address those issues.
First, it should be said that prosecutors seem to have Jefferson dead to rights. They have — and have had since late last summer — more than enough evidence to justify a search of his office. In the last months, they have apparently tried other, more standard, means to try to get Jefferson to comply with requests to turn over the evidence, to no avail. There is even, in the 95-page search warrant request, a section headlined GOVERNMENT EFFORTS TO EXHAUST ALL LESSER INTRUSIVE APPROACHES TO OBTAINING RELEVANT DOCUMENTS AND RECORDS LOCATED IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C. CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE OF WILLIAM J. JEFFERSON. It is followed by several redacted paragraphs in which prosecutors apparently describe their attempts to get Jefferson to turn over information.
And then there is this:
Then the warrant describes a set of extraordinary procedures involving not only prosecutors but also the Court, by which Congressional privileges will be respected:The government has exhausted all other reasonable methods to obtain these records in a timely manner short of requesting this search warrant. A member of Congressman Jefferson's staff has indicated to law enforcement agents that records relevant to the investigation remain in Congressman Jefferson's Capitol Hill office, which the government has been unable to obtain to date. Left with no other method, the government is proceeding in this fashion.
To ensure the prosecution team does not inadvertently review any potentially politically sensitive, non-responsive items in the office, or information that may fall within the purview of the Speech or Debate Clause privilege, or any other pertinent privilege, the physical search of the office will be conducted by special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who have had no substantive role in the investigation.The non-case agents will remove from the office those paper records determined to be responsive [to a detailed list of things to be search for included at the end of the warrant request]…Other than as required to determine responsiveness, the non-case agents will not disclose to anyone any politically sensitive and non-responsive items inadvertently seen by the non-case agents during the course of the search of the office and will attest in writing to their compliance with this procedure.
Before giving any paper records seized from the office to the prosecution team, the non-case agents will deliver the seized paper records to the designated Filter Team….Prior to their appointment, the Filter Team will have had no role or connection to the investigation in this matter and their subsequent roles in the investigation will be confined to their duties and responsibilities in connection with these special procedures.
The Filter Team will review the paper records seized from the office to validate that they are responsive…Any paper records seized from the office that are determined by the Filter Team to be unresponsive…will be promptly returned to the office…
Paper records validated by the Filter Team as responsive…will undergo a second level of review by the Filter Team. The Filter Team will review the responsive records to determine if they may fall within the purview of the Speech or Debate Clause privilege or any other pertinent privilege…
For those paper records determined by the Filter Team as potentially within the purview of the Speech or Debate Clause privilege, or any other pertinent privilege, the Filter Team shall provide a log of those potentially privileged paper records to counsel for Congressman Jefferson. The log shall identify the record by date, recipient, sender and subject matter….The Filter Team shall not provide the log or copies of the potentially privileged paper records to the prosecution team, unless otherwise ordered by the Court…
The Filter Team shall then request the District Court to review the potentially privileged paper records in order for the Court to name a final determination whether they contain privileged information, unless counsel for Congressman Jefferson consents to the production to the prosecution team of certain of the potentially privileged paper records.
The warrant application goes on to describe a similar method of dealing with electronic records. Given the careful methods outlined in the warrant application, and given the apparently unusual situation presented by the Jefferson case, it seems hard to deny that the Justice Department, working with the Court, has taken sufficient steps to respect congressional privileges.
By what right does Hastert think he can dictate to the executive branch in the exercise of its duty to carry out the law?
Even Executive "filter teams".
Scr*w separation of powers,i'm all for catching criminals no matter what method is used.They certainly had probable cause because of the video tape and cash hidden in his freezor!This type of action would help us get to the bottom of things a lot quicker.
Who says he's dictating?
Even though you make sense.
Would democraps have come to the aid if this had been a republican?This is what i dislike about the republicans,a gift horse looks them in the mouth a they just pis* away an opportunity to nail a democrap.
Maybe dictating is a bit strong. Let me try it again. What right does he have to establish guidelines about the FBI review of these documents? They were obtained under a lawful warrant with all kinds of protections built in. On the other hand, maybe it is a way for Hastert to save face.
please cite where and lets discuss
I guess I am in the minority here but I share some of the concerns of what happen. In the future I am sure some process can worked out. I think that if the reports are true that this hasnt happen in the history of the Republic, that something that should be mediatated on a tad. I have to think what would be the response if a "Kerry" justice department had raided Tom Delay's office. THere are perhaps a few people that for legitimate and legal reason who would write Delay for instance that would not want their correspondance read by people other than his staff. Particullay a justice dept under control of an Executive that might be hostile to them.
During the Civil War Lincoln in order to save the Union did many things under his "inherent powers" as he called them that were a tad injurious to civil liberties, and the Seperation of powers.. I have to imagine that even in those days if Lincoln had not ordered raids on certain Congressional offices thats something to consider.
Rather, they are WORKING TOGETHER to figure out how this is going to be handled in the future. What in the world is wrong with that?
Better yet here's a short thread with good comments from all sides: Invitation to an FR Constitutional Debate: Is Hastert right re the FBI searching Jefferson's office?
Gonzales should arrest Frist for conspiring to commit Treason by going with Reid and Kennedy to turn our country over to Mexico.
Oh, brother.
When they let me negotiate how a search warrant on my home will be conducted, beyond protections already provided in the law for all, then I won't have a problem with it. Until then, I view it as congress believing it is entitled to "special" treatment.
Where were all these Republicans when this was happening to Cunningham? Did they let him go down because he wasn't "black?" I can't understand this fiasco at all. Of course, I'm one of those morons who believes law enforcement should be able to do whatever it takes to put a criminal in jail. It's a geezer thing.
The Speaker of the House has an obligation to speak up to ensure that procedures are conducted properly.
It is not as a private citizen that he is acting...it is on behalf of the people's House. Future generations won't look on him to kindly if a future Janet Reno feels free to bust into any Congressperson's office willy nilly.
If it turns out he is wrong (and I don't think he will be for reasons that Mr. Smith above states) so be it. But the analogy to a private citizen (who also has a right to take it to court if necessary...or also change things through the political process) is erroneous.
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