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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Hastert Keeps After Bush on Congressional Office Raid Hastert Keeps After Bush on Congressional Office Raid By Susan Ferrechio, CQ Staff House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is so angry over being kept in the dark about the first-ever raid on a congressional office building that he has taken his grievance to President Bush three times over two days. Hastert, R-Ill., discussed the FBI search with Bush on May 22 as they traveled to Washington together aboard Air Force One, again Tuesday at the White House, where GOP leaders join Bush weekly for breakfast, and again by telephone later in the day, said a House Republican source familiar with the Speaker’s actions on the issue. That is an extraordinary amount of high-level complaining, but what happened over the weekend was even more unusual. There was no precedent for the search of the Rayburn Building office of Rep. William J. Jefferson, D-La., who is the subject of a corruption investigation. What’s more, the way the search was handled added an extra layer of irritation. The House official in charge of security, Sergeant at Arms Wilson Livingood, and the House general counsel were barred from entering the room during the search. And agents waited until the raid was about to begin before trying to contact Hastert’s top lawyer, Ted Van Der Meid. When they could not immediately reach Van Der Meid late on a Saturday afternoon, “They said oh well, we tried and moved in,” said the source, who pointedly noted that since Hastert is No. 2 in the line of presidential succession, the executive branch has the ability to contact him directly any hour of the day or night. “Any attempt to notify our office was done as they were on Capitol Hill ready to conduct the raid,” Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said. “Even the Department of Justice recognizes that is not ‘notice.’ ” Adding to the institutional vexation was the two days that elapsed between the signing of the search warrant on May 18 and the first attempt to reach any House official. Angry, but Low-Key Leaders in both chambers and both parties kept their public comments to a minimum on Tuesday and made an effort to endorse the corruption probe while expressing dismay at the breach of the divisions between branches of government. The leaders “don’t really to want to make too much of a fuss over this,” the Republican source said. “They are having lawyers review the situation,” said House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Adam H. Putnam of Florida. Hastert, who said he would have tried to stop the raid had he known of it beforehand, had not determined what his next step would be as of Tuesday evening. Aides to Hastert and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said their lawyers were discussing options together — an unusual display of bipartisan cooperation in that chamber. While the congressional leaders pondered their moves, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales defended his. “We have an obligation to pursue the evidence wherever it exists,” Gonzales said, adding that in past corruption probes, investigators were able to get evidence they needed without resorting to searches of congressional offices. Gonzales hinted that investigators have not gotten the cooperation they felt they needed from Capitol Hill to avoid such a search. “The reason it has never been done before is we have before been able to reach an accommodation,” he said. “For a variety of reasons that did not occur here.” “At end of the day a decision was made that this was absolutely essential to move forward with that investigation,” added Gonzales, whose department has been engaged in months of negotiations with the House over information sought as part of an unrelated corruption probe — that one an extension of the investigation that nabbed former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif. (1991-2005), who pleaded guilty to taking bribes from defense contractors. During his televised daily briefing Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said,“We are hoping for a resolution that will balance the concerns of Congress with the obligations of the executive branch.” House Majority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, said he expects Congress will “clearly speak to the issue,” but that ultimately, the Supreme Court will probably have to decide the matter. Staff at the Senate Rules and Administration Committee are conducting an informal inquiry into what rules the Senate has in place if an executive branch agency sought to search offices there. “We have an effort under way to look into what our rules and procedures are if such a situation would arise,” said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the committee’s chairman. “I suspect we already have some procedures in place.” But Lott, like many congressional leaders and rank-and-file members, has his concerns about the unprecedented raid. “It does have separation-of-powers implications,” Lott said. “I think sometimes the executive branch is overstepping at times.” Seeking Legal Guidance Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he was meeting with Rules Committee and Judiciary Committee members to discuss the Senate’s reaction and procedures for criminal inquiries. “I’m talking to everyone on this,” Frist said. “We want to learn more about separation of powers, precedents.” FBI agents spent part of the weekend sifting through files and copying computer hard drives in Jefferson’s office as part of a bribery probe directed at the eight-term lawmaker from New Orleans. According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, authorities went to extreme lengths to separate the legislative from the potentially criminal, filtering the documents and computer files to determine whether they might be considered privileged materials under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause. That clause specifies that members of Congress “shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.” “On its face, the search warrant does not justify the need for the search of congressional offices, and I am skeptical that the special procedures outlined in the warrant would pass constitutional review,” said Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. GOP aides said that committee’s chairman, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., also has expressed concern about the search and was expected to express his views on Wednesday. Martin Kady II and Alan K. Ota contributed to this story.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: aristeides (#0)
This fat pig is worried he is next.
#2. To: Kamala (#1)
Even if Hastert and the rest of the House leadership are corrupt, we're better off if they continue to share power with the executive than if the executive seizes a monopoly of power. First things first. It's the Bush administration that is threatening to turn into a dictatorship. Once it is defeated, then it will be time to deal with other people, like Hastert.
I think so too.
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