Posted on 08/03/2007 3:34:45 PM PDT by Revel
WASHINGTON — The FBI violated the Constitution when agents raided U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's office last year and viewed legislative documents in a corruption investigation, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
The court ordered the Justice Department to return any legislative documents it seized from the Louisiana Democrat's office on Capitol Hill. The court did not order the return of all the documents seized in the raid and did not say whether prosecutors could use any of the records against Jefferson in their bribery case.
Jefferson argued that the first-of-its-kind raid trampled congressional independence. The Constitution prohibits the executive branch from using its law enforcement powers to interfere with the lawmaking process. The Justice Department said that declaring the search unconstitutional would essentially prohibit the FBI from ever looking at a lawmaker's documents.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
How much do you want to bet this was a Clinton appointed judge?
And he's still walking around free while our border patrol officers sit in prison after shooting an illegal alien drug smuggler.
Is anyone surprised?
I hope the ruling elite keep this crap up in DC until the entire country is so fed up with this corruption that...
The way I understand this, the ruling only applies to the legislative papers that did not directly apply to the search. This appears to be a fairly narrow ruling here, and ought not be interpreted as a victory for Jefferson in any way.
Ginsburg and Henderson are both Republicans; Rogers is a Clinton appointee who once worked in the Nixon Administration.
See #5
It was decided by a three judge panel. Two of the three judges are Pubbies.
"The case was considered by Chief Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, Judge Karen Lecraft Henderson and Judge Judith W. Rogers. Ginsburg and Rogers served in the Justice Department and Henderson served as deputy South Carolina attorney general. None of the judges served in the legislative branch, though Rogers was counsel to a congressional commission formed to review Washington's municipal structure. Ginsburg and Henderson were appointed by Republican presidents, Rogers by a Democrat."
Tell me, is he in prison? Didn't this occur about 2 years ago? Didn't they find $90,000 in cash in the man's freezer?
He's still a free man? How's that work?
Of course. Says so right there in the constitution, “Congressional felons are above the law.” Bribery? What bribery?
Unlike we lowly scum, the elitist politicians are above the law. They are better than the rest of us. These so-called “judges” say so. Don’t give me the “Constitutional” crap. These “judges” haven’t got a clue about what is in the Constitution. They are just protecting the hideouts of their political pals. Politicians need a safe place, that is off limits to the law, where they can stash their loot (and other things)!
Fox actually has the headline wrong. The search was constitutional, portions of the seizure weren’t. In the future, they could do essentially the same thing, but instead of reading the documents, scoop them up and take them to a judge for review.
So what is with the headline? What is this, a John Kerry before and after moment?
He’s a black Democrat. You shouldn’t try the same thing.
They only care about the constitution when they think they can manipulate it to their own advantage.
But nobody violated the Constitution when over 900 FBI files were taken to the White House.
I guess it’s true. Nobody does hear that tree in the forest.
This is how I read the decision. If any of the non-privileged documents seized constitute evidence against Jefferson this decision does not make them inadmissible and does not provide Jefferson with any basis for a motion to supress at trial. The ruling doesn't really help him at all - any documents considered privileged under ruling are clearly not what the Justice Dept. was looking for in the first place.
For what it’s worth, so are Schwarzenegger and a number of Congressmen and Senators I wouldn’t give you a plug nickle for. I’m not going to completely damn this decision though at this point.
Isn’t it interesting though how much transperancy there needs to be when the left is talking about the current White House occupants.
You bet,
Jefferson was videotaped by the FBI receiving $100,000 worth of $100 bills at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington, Virginia. They got him on tape saying he would need to give Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar $500,000 "as a motivating factor.
A subsequent raid found $90,000 of the cash in his freezer, wrapped in aluminum foil.
Over two years ago? This Federal employee is still walking around free?
How does this work?
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