Judge clears FBI in raid of congressman’s office
WASHINGTON – A federal judge ruled Monday that the unprecedented FBI raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office was constitutional, saying the government “demonstrated a compelling need to conduct the search” in the ongoing public corruption probe.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan, in an eagerly awaited 28-page opinion, said that politicians were not above the law, and rejected arguments from the Louisiana Democrat that the search violated the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which protects speech and documents related to legislative activity.
“Congressman Jefferson’s interpretation of the Speech or Debate privilege would have the effect of converting every congressional office into a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime,” Hogan wrote, rejecting the request to return the seized materials.
Since March 2005, the FBI has been investigating allegations that Jefferson took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using his congressional influence to promote high-tech business ventures in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon.
Jefferson’s attorney, Robert Trout, vowed to appeal the ruling. He said he also planned to request a stay to keep the seized documents under seal pending appeal. If granted, the stay could further delay FBI investigators, who have been waiting to examine the potential evidence in the 15-month probe.
“The raid on Congressman Jefferson’s office was unprecedented, unnecessary and unconstitutional,” Trout said in a statement, adding that “we respectfully disagree” with the judge’s ruling.
A Justice Department official hailed the ruling but said that, “as is customary in similar situations,” the department “will wait for the court’s decision on the stay before accessing the documents.”
Jefferson, 59, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has not been charged.
About 15 FBI agents raided the office at the Rayburn Office Building about 7:15 p.m. May 20 and spent 18 hours sifting through documents and copying computer hard drives.
Shortly after, Republican and Democratic congressional leaders protested the raid, asserting it violated the separation of powers principle and illegally encroached on congressional rights. Days later, President Bush intervened, ordering the seized materials to be sealed for 45 days to give the Justice Department and Congress time to work out a compromise. Hogan subsequently issued his own order to keep the materials under seal.
Monday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who had been a vocal critic of the raid, offered a measured response to the ruling in a statement.
Pelosi said “no one is above the law” and congressional members shouldn’t be allowed to use their office to conceal criminal activity. But she added that “this particular search could have been conducted in a manner that fully protected the ability of the prosecutors to obtain the evidence needed to do their job while preserving constitutional principles.”
She said the House plans to continue talking with Justice officials to develop procedures in the future to strike a constitutional balance for the FBI and Congress.