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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Update 20: House Leaders Demand FBI Return Papers Update 20: House Leaders Demand FBI Return Papers By LAURIE KELLMAN , 05.24.2006, 03:41 PM House leaders of both parties stood in rare election-year unanimity Wednesday demanding the FBI surrender documents it took and remove agents involved in the weekend raid of a congressman's office. "The Justice Department must immediately return the papers it unconstitutionally seized," House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. The leaders said that the congressman, William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, should then cooperate with the investigation. Earlier, Hastert had said any FBI agents involved "ought to be frozen out of that (case) just for the sake of the constitutional aspects of it." Both parties have protested the Saturday night search of Jefferson's office on Capitol Hill, which they said violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine. FBI agents searched Jefferson's office in pursuit of evidence in a bribery investigation. The search warrant, signed by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan, was based on an affidavit that said agents found $90,000 in cash stashed in the freezer of Jefferson's home. White House officials said they did not learn of the search until after it happened. They pledged to work with the Justice Department to soothe lawmakers. Democrats, meanwhile, tried to get Jefferson to resign his seat on the House's most prestigious panel. "In the interest of upholding the high ethical standard of the House Democratic Caucus, I am writing to request your immediate resignation from the Ways and Means Committee," wrote Pelosi. Jefferson was defiant. "With respect, I decline to do so," he wrote back to Pelosi. "I will not give up a committee assignment that is so vital to New Orleans at this crucial time for any uncertain, long-term political strategy." Jefferson, meanwhile, filed a motion asking the judge to order the FBI to return all of the documents taken from his office during the 15-hour search. Jefferson's motion said the search violated "speech and debate" protections in the Constitution to ensure the independence of lawmakers. Presidential administrations and Congress have routinely subpoenaed information from each other, and often they have refused to give up the materials sought. This is the first time the branch seeking the information dispatched its law enforcement arm to wrest materials from the office of a sitting congressman who is the target of a probe. Most members of the leadership of both houses objected to the search because they said it violated the Constitution. "The institution has a right to protect itself against the executive department going into our offices and violating what is the (Constitution's) speech and debate clause, which essentially says, `That's none of your business, executive department,'" said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Republicans were being careful to protest the raid without defending Jefferson. Some House officials are predicting the case will bring all three branches together at the Supreme Court for a constitutional showdown. Historians say it was the first raid of a representative's quarters in Congress' 219 years. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tried to strike a conciliatory tone, saying, "We have a great deal of respect for the Congress as a coequal branch of government." But he also defended the search: "We have an obligation to the American people to pursue the evidence where it exists." Justice Department officials said the decision to search Jefferson's office was made in part because he refused to comply with a subpoena for documents last summer. Jefferson reported the subpoena to the House on Sept. 15, 2005. Associated Press writers David Espo and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
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#1. To: aristeides (#0)
Listen to the bastards that support warrantless wiretaps, nationwide phone surveillance and unrestricted "data mining" NOW squeal like stuck pigs.
that hypocrisy notwithstanding, consider that this is at least some sign of resistance to the Unitary Presidency.
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