Judge rules Capital
Hill raid was legal
House Lawyers charged
FBI search violated separation of powers.
An FBI raid on a
Louisiana congressman's Capitol Hill office
was legal, a federal
judge ruled Monday.
By AP from CNN.com on
the Web, July 10, 2006
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FBI agents
raid Rep. William Jefferson's congressional office while
investigating corruption charges. |
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Washington -- 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 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.
Jefferson's theory of legislative privilege "would have the effect of converting
every congressional office into a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime," the
judge said.
Hogan acknowledged the "unprecedented" nature of the case but said "a Member of
Congress is generally bound to the operation of the criminal laws as are
ordinary persons."
Congress' effectiveness "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."
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