Posted on 05/30/2006 7:29:38 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Witnesses and lawmakers at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill have sharply criticized an FBI raid on the office of a member of Congress, calling it a dangerous violation of constitutional principles.
One after another, witnesses called the FBI raid on the office of Congressman William Jefferson an unprecedented breach of protections the Constitution provides members of Congress against intrusions by the Executive Branch of government.
In the 18-hour search, under authority of a court warrant, the FBI removed paper and computer records from the office of the Louisiana Democratic lawmaker, who has been the subject of a federal bribery investigation.
That means federal investigators had access not only to material that may have been related to their investigation of Jefferson, but also other material relating to his legislative and representational activities.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensbrenner, a Republican, says the issues raised by the search transcend any particular member of Congress.
"A constitutional question is raised when communications between members of Congress and their constituents, documents having nothing whatsoever to do with any crime, are seized by the executive branch without constitutional authority," said Mr. Sensbrenner. "This seizure occurred without so much as lawyers or representatives of Congress being allowed to simply observe the search and how it was conducted. Neither was anyone representing the institutional interests of Congress allowed to make a case before a judge raising these important separation of powers issues."
In preparing the affidavit that formed the basis of a court-approved search warrant, the Justice Department said it acted only because other methods had been exhausted, principally a subpoena to force Jefferson to hand over documents.
Constitutional scholar and George Washington University Professor of Law Jonathan Turley calls the raid on the Jefferson office a tradition-shattering challenge to the separation of powers:
"The raid on this office, of Representative Jefferson, represents a profound and almost gratuitous insult to a co-equal branch of government," said Mr. Turley. "In the history of this country, no president has ever ordered or allowed a search of an office of a sitting member of this House."
Turley urges lawmakers to respond forcefully and quickly with legislation aimed at preventing a recurrence of the event.
Bruce Fein is principal partner in The Lichfield Group consulting firm.
"It is exceptionally important that the Congress respond clearly and authoritatively with a statute that rejects the authority of the Executive Branch [of government], whether or not a search warrant is authorized by a judge, to look through the files of a member's office and glance at legislative protected materials under the speech or debate clause," he said. "That kind of authority can be abused to intimidate, to cow Congress, into submission to executive desires."
Robert Walker, a former congressman from Pennsylvania and now chairman of the Wexler & Wexler public affairs firm, does not advocate legislation, but urges Congress to take other steps.
"Congressional leadership must seek an explanation for the seemingly-oblivious nature of the warrant process," he said. Demand a full accounting for the decision-making process that led to the Rayburn [Building] raid. The Judiciary Committee should be prepared to subpoena documents tied to this incident. Seek an explanation for what seems to be a lack of judicial respect for the traditions and precedents that have insulated legislative deliberations from the threat of overzealous exercise of Executive power. "
As they consider responses to the FBI raid, lawmakers are not asserting that members of Congress be immune from law-enforcement investigations. But they are accusing the government of ignoring proper procedures.
Congressman John Conyers is the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee:
"Ten days after the fact, we have never been told why the pending subpoena against a member [of Congress] could not have been enforced consistent with the law," said Mr. Conyers.
Charles Tiefer is Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
"This raid had all the elements of unconstitutional Executive intimidation," said Mr. Tiefer. "It breached what I have just described, a previously sacrosanct constitutional tradition."
President Bush last week ordered that the materials seized by the FBI from Congressman Jefferson's office be sealed for 45 days, a kind of cooling off period as Congress and government officials tackle the issues raised by the search.
Congressional leaders have predicted that the issues are of such magnitude to deserve eventual consideration by the Supreme Court.
Witnesses supported that, and Congressman Sensenbrenner says he will call Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and other officials to testify in additional hearings.
Although the hearing occurred during a weeklong congressional recess, and did not summon Bush administration witnesses to testify, it ensures the matter will remain a key focus of congressional attention in coming weeks.
Everybody all together now! "Don't you know who we are! You'll never work in this town again you wascally FBI guys!"
Doesn't suprise me at all. After all, laws are for the little people, not our lords. How dare you question?!
In other words, Congress would like to be informed ahead of time so they can get their files in order.
Just what might those proper procedures be?
The Dems handed the Republicans the rope to use to hang the Dems for the November elections, instead, the Republicans are using it to tie it around their own neck, and they are kicking the chair out from under themselves.
The Dems must have invented a WMD -- something to make the Republicans suicidal.
The Congress that has been ripping our Constitution, page by page, for decades now hides behind it, or their revisionist hope of it.
Congressional Republicans for the most part hate this President. Although the President may be as far Left as one can go and still be a conservative, a large portion of the Republican Congress don't even pretend to be conservatives, nor do they pretend to have principles.
The President gets blamed for a lot of the Congress's failures. Especially here.
This may boil down to a Supreme Court case, but it certainly should not be ajudicated by the Congress.
Is it possible that whatever is in the items seized from Jefferson's office contains something damaging to the House GOP leadership? I cannot think of any rational explanation for why Rep. Hastert and Co. are doing what they're doing.
FBI only 534 more offices to go.
Gee, Mr. Fein, you should have taken eighth-grade Social Studies at the Middle School I attended. I distinctly remember the teacher (ironically named Mr. Solon) explaining that one feature of the separation of powers setup was that if one of the three branches got out of line, the other two branches would "combine forces" to bring it back under control.
In this case, the Executive branch (FBI, Justice Department) teamed up with the Judicial branch (subpoena, warrant) to put the brakes on the Legislative branch (Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana).
Mr. Solon would have said "tisk, tisk."
A congresscritter can COMINGLE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, SNUFF FILMS and a VIDEO of said congresscritter raping and killing a staffer, with papers that fall under the SPEECH and DEBATE clause of the Constitution, on his OFFICE HARD DRIVE, and NO ONE could ever get a court order to look at the hard drive because these SACRED PAPERS might be seen?
What kind of idiotic nonsense is this?
I was beginning to believe the water was circling the bowl but now that people like Hastert and Sensenbrenner are willing to go to the mat for Jefferson, who has ignored a grand jury subpeona for 9 months, I'm convinced the last bit of paper is gone.
Time for all good men to come to the aid of their country...
Maybe Jim will make...THE CALL!
I assume election to Congress requires either mind boggling stupidity, or the surgical removal of portions of the brain. The question is how much of the brain, and where is it taken from [I presume those brain centers responsible for lip puckering near a ward heeler's buttocks are not subject to removal]?
Imagine....
Imagine for just one second the kind of reaction Turley, the Republicans, the Democrats, and the dying, socialist MSM would have had if this raid had been conducted last year on the office of Congressman Tom DeLay.
Absolutely correct! These Congressmen are losing it, I hope they realize how they're making themselves look. It's amazing how many are coming out against the whole thing.
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