Better still hire Sandy Berger, he knows how to get rid of papers.
Posted on 07/10/2006 1:36:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - An FBI raid on a Louisiana congressman's Capitol Hill office was legal, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said members of Congress are not above the law. He rejected requests from lawmakers and Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) to return material seized by the FBI in a May 20-21 search of Jefferson's office.
In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments that the first-ever raid on a congressman's office violated the Constitution's protections against intimidation of elected officials.
"Congress' capacity to function effectively is not threatened by permitting congressional offices to be searched pursuant to validly issued search warrants," said Hogan, who had approved the FBI's request to conduct the overnight search of Jefferson's office.
Jefferson had sought the return of several computer hard drives, floppy disks and two boxes of paper documents that FBI agents seized during an 18-hour search of his Rayburn Building office.
At issue was a constitutional provision known as the speech and debate clause, which protects elected officials from being questioned by the president, a prosecutor or a plaintiff in a lawsuit about their legislative work.
"No one argues that the warrant executed upon Congressman Jefferson's office was not properly administered," Hogan wrote. "Therefore, there was no impermissible intrusion on the Legislature. The fact that some privileged material was incidentally captured by the search does not constitute an unlawful intrusion."
The raid on Jefferson's office angered members of Congress, some of whom threatened to retaliate by tinkering with the FBI and Justice Department budgets.
President Bush stepped in and ordered the solicitor general to take custody of the seized materials so Congress and the Justice Department could work out procedures to deal with similar situations in the future.
The president's 45-day "cooling off period" ended Sunday with no compromise worked out but with assurances from the Justice Department that it would not seek to regain custody of the materials until Hogan ruled on Jefferson's request.
Imagine that. The senator is not above the law.
It probably will - since they seem to be a little unclear on their duties! "Self enrichment" does not appear anywhere in the Constitution, alas.
"The raid on Jefferson's office angered members of Congress, some of whom threatened to retaliate by tinkering with the FBI and Justice Department budgets."
How do we find out who the goons are who have "threatened to retaliate by tinkering with the FBI and Justice Department budgets"? A pox on all of their houses.
it may be too early to tell, but I think some FReepers owe Mr. Bush an apology...
=P
Some freepers owe President Bush many apologies in each hour of the day because of the dumb statements they make about him.
The Rule of Law Wins! Whats happening over at Dummyland?
What they say is one thing, what they do is another.
But! He`s a Democrate they cant do that. The horror of it all.
Raid every one of them.
In the Matter of the Search of: RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
Misc. No. 2006-0231
Memorandum Opinion issued July 10, 2006 by Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan
Order issued July 10, 2006 by Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan
Thanks for the links!
absolutely right. and by the way jveritas, thanks a million for all that you do here. when's the next translation coming out? =)
Better still hire Sandy Berger, he knows how to get rid of papers.
Now Nancy Pelosi and DENNIS HASTERT do the following:
Nancy: Shut your surgically altered mouth.
Denny: Shut your big, fat hog jowls you oinker.
I'll just bet.
And Sandy knows how not to get prosecuted - or at any rate, how to get off easy - when caught.
Has there been power outages in Washington yet?
What a disgrace. These politicans forget they're working for us and not working to be part of the 'klub'.
That'll come as a shock to Con-gress....
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