FBI's Congress search was wrong. Then again...

i have lost all confidence in our self serving congress. i will not vote for any incumbert in the next election.

You could make the same arguments for diplomatic immunity.

Isn't this situation exactly the reason we have seperate branches of government? What kind of gods do these congressmen think they are to protest a search and seizure by the FBI (executive branch) with a warrant issued by the judicial branch? What more than a videotape and the recovered money could the FBI possibly be expected to obtain for the right to search Jefferson's everything, regardless of the address?

I think Congress needs a wake up call to remind them they are highly compensated,average IQ, elected officials and not omnipotent poohbas! Their arrogance is so open that they are starting to believe all the crap they spout. Too many are not listening to their districts, they believe the money they receive through our taxes can be spent as their own, "the 500 million bridge to nowhere in Alaska". Enough already get to serious business such as immigration,stop the influx first, social security needs work, Pres Bush did a very poor job on the presentation of an alternative way to generate future money and a program to make us energy self reliant similar to the space program are a few to start.

Checks and balances. If the Executive Branch wants to conduct a search, and the Judicial Branch grants a search warrant, then the checks and balances have worked.

Congressional members get enough privileges and we know most will retire millionaires. If a congressional member is suspected of a crime and the evidence is solid, then we must search and seize any criminating material no matter where the material is located. Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution protects them from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and to and from. That's too much protection. They are citizrens first, and congressional member second, therefore, should be given all rights and subjections under the law as any other citizen. Unless the evidence seized is proven to be fraudulent, he's cleared, otherwise he needs to answer to the allegations/charges through jury trial proceedings.

I have lost all confidence in the Justice Department. Janet Reno, at least, followed existing law. These ingrates make their own.

Police State,Homeland Sercurity; any surprises here? Nothing to see, move along.

It is about time that some crooked members of congress be brought down to their greedy knees.Those who are screaming the loudest about the search of Mr Jefferson's computer hard drives,documents(etc)might have many things to hide themselves.food for thought huh.

Mervin Williams
Alexandria Louisiana

It's about time that Congress and the media finally wake up to the fact that this king has no clothes on. Kidnapping, torture, secret prisons, rendition, extra-legal spying on citizens, "signing statements" that flout the will of Congress, flagrant cronyism, branding critics un-patriotic, frequent planting of fake news stories in the American media (so-called "Videao News Releases", better titled propaganda), and now blatant bullying of members of Congress. This president and his administration have a serious totalitarian leaning in their methods. Do we all get it yet?

This comes off as very strange. Usually politicians distance themselves and speak highly of the fellow servant. I just get the feeling that they feel they are entitled to some special treatment, an opportunity to hide or destroy evidence. The using of a constitutional issue seems far-fetched. I think they all have gone to far, in many respects. Free stamps, free limo, free limo driver, special parking spots at the national capital, free health, etc. They should be subject to the same treatment as everyone else. We should pay them more, and eliminate all the freebies. Thus, they could feel our pain at the gas pump, feel our pain of the health insurance costs, instead of being a pain in the ass.

If the offices of congress can be searched, then The White House or offices of The Supreme Court Justices can be searched.

The Justice Investigation is just a lead up to the Abramoff Investigation. Congressman Jefferson provided the Attorney General the perfect cover that will get him a favorable Supreme Court ruling which in turn he will use to go after everyone in Congress that was influenced by lobbying. Will anyone be left?? Excellent strategy.

Police State? Homeland Scurity(not Sercurity) You are trying to imply something was done illegally or outside the proper channels, but the FBI(Executive Branch) received a warrant from the courts(Judicial) Branch) in order to search the office of a Congressman(Legislative Branch)Forgive me for not understanding your viewpoint, but it seems to me that what happened there is a prime example of the checks and balances placed in the Constitution and not some kind of breach of it. So a Congressman was caught, and others are now worried about being caught, well it is about time that they were brought down to the same level as the rest of us, American Citizens, and not kept aloft as they seem to think they are above the rest of us.

the law is only fearful if you have done something for which the authorities could come after you for. I would not be fearful of any search of my property because I have nothing to hide. If all the elected officals are so concerned shouldn't we really be asking what is it they are trying to keep from being discovered.

I absolutely agree with the above posters, if anything, the Executive is not going far enough. The President should immediately direct the FBI to get warrants and arrest all those terrorist supporters for treason so we can finally remove that pesky legislature that is full of corrupt communist freedom-hating terrorist-lovers - let's charge them all with the treasons they have committed and purge America of their weakness.

It is a question of checks and balances.

BUT the wholesales of removal of priviledge material is stepping over the line (harddrive). Add to it a Saturday Night Raid. Shows wholesale disrespect to the Constitution.

They keep calling it a search. There was not search, it was a vacumn. A search would not take a harddrive, a search would search the harddrive and remove only what belongs to case.

The self serving members of congress have violated their respective oaths of office by focusing on personal gain as opposed to the national interest. They are not above the law regardless of their extraordinary interpretation of the constitution. It is time to demand an accounting of their time served. Criminals should be punished and many of them are criminals in every sense of the word.

Despite the negatives, one branch of government cannot be allowed to exert powerover the other like this. Do you think the Bush administration would allow this if the situation were reversed? I think not. If congress and the judicial branch ordered a search of the oval office, the people attempting the raid would be mowed down with Uzi's. The executive branch under this president blantantly disregards our rights and liberties, and is slowly assimilating the powers of all three branches. If this is allowed to continue the other two branches will be meaningless token positions in short order.

It is about time that we catch these crooked politicians. No politician is ABOVE the LAW. In Article one, section 6 it says that they are protected except for FELONY. Well this is a felony investigation. So live with it. To many politicians hide behind their position so that they may bilk the public of their money and extort money for personal gain from major companies. Who really owns a Senators or Congressmans vote? It sure is not the constituents of their respective district or state.

There is a flaw in comparing a hard drive to all the papers in the office. If a piece of evidence was burried within all those papers then each piece would be searched till the proper piece either found or not found. That is what will happen to the hard drive and the data stored there. All evidence will be extracted and the remaining information returned. This happens many times in many search warrents. Boxes of paper records are removed so a careful search can be conducted. If us average citizens are subject to the law then no one should be above it. And for Janet Reno - get real. She likes to burn people up instead of arresting them.

It's ridiculous for our legislators to think that a member of the House or Senate is above the laws that apply to any other citizen. But even if the statute is very narrowly construed, I don't read anything that prevents search & seizure in a Congressperson's office. If I'm not mistaken, Jefferson was never arrested while actually in the House and on business there, and even if he were, isn't bribery/malfeasance in an official capacity a felony, as the law's exceptions specify?

I also find it quite ironic that Congress would complain about the lawful (and over all quite deferential) treatment Jefferson's received while saddling the average citizen with the Patriot Act.

It's no wonder our country has so many problems worldwide. Our so called lawmakers and polititions
waste so much valuable time trying to protect each other and their turf that more important business gets pushed aside. A person would have to be mentally handicaped to not see the need for the action taken by the FBI. Too many crimes have been suppressed by Elite Officeholders in Washington, DC already. It's time for a Major Purge to take place and remove these members of Congress that have forgotten the real reason for them being there.

Surely the concern here (as in most of these cases lately) is the precedent and what it does to erode the protection afforded by the constitution. In this case the “speech and debate clause” of Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution.

This particular criminal case seems pretty cut and dry with marked money and an undercover informant handing over the bribe. So why the need for a 'raid' of his office and the seizure of private communications between constituents and their elected representative, as well as matters relating to legislative affairs which should not be available to the executive branch through an indescrimate 'raid' of anything and everything in the office? Why cause this unheard of (in the history of our nation) constitutional challenge? I believe it is to further erode the protection afforded by that constitution through a series of small precedent establishing events.

There have been others.... arrest a US citizen on US soil and spirit him out of a system of 'due process' and then find a judge to uphold that - now any US citizen can be arrested anywhere without legal recourse - war on terror/national security.... Kidnap a non-US citizen from foreign soil and then detain him without legal recourse for several months, then deny him the right to sue because of national security....... and on and on... search our homes, spy on our phone calls, monitor who we talk to..... Congressmen and women 'interviewed' to find sources of leaks of national security (when it is likely that the White House itself is doing it 90% of the time for political gain and to create a culture of panic and fear).

The house ethics committee should have been charged with investigating this matter and passing on any documents that the FBI had any reason to use in their prosecution. If they were unable or unwilling then perhaps a supervised investigation that ensures only relevant materials are collected would have been the answer. The FBI chose a direct challenge to constitutional and legal precedent and created a mechanism for the executive branch to use in whatever other scenarios they choose in the future. The threat is that the Congress will become 'cowed' into submission by a culture of fear and intimidation - exactly what this clause was designed to prevent.

There has to be a line at some point or there will be no lines left and we can all kiss goodbye to our rights. Congress stand up now for yourselves and for the rest of us. Remember who created our constitution and the tyranny that they wanted to prevent ever happening in this nation ever again.

God Bless America.

As an old saying goes. "If you throw a rock down a dark alley & hear a scream, you know you hit something". In this case, the others must be nervous about something since they are screaming so loud!

For all that, if any of those crooks are actually convicted of something, they should IMMEDIATELY loose any benefits (medical, retirement, etc) they might have had. That might go a long way toward stopping their criminal activity!

It is a little known fact that in Texas (especially when Bush was governor of the state) right before election time, the FBI would suddenly start raiding the offices of democrats! So, to me, this raid on Jefferson's office was ANOTHER abuse of power coming out of the "Unitary Executive"'s office. Remember, Gonzales is Bush's lap dog and these guys, though on the surface it does look good, got a warrant, but can we trust the 'truthiness' of this warrant! And how do we know that Jefferson wasn't set up by the FBI at the direction of the Unitary Executive's office? Huh? The Unitary Executive doesn't like having Congress in his way and he is has actively tried to blur the lines between the two branches since January 2001. When Ashcroft in the beginning would okay everything he wanted, he put Gonzales in there for God's sake! Abuse of power is how I see it and the Unitary Executive will continue to do this crap to help his approval ratings, to win elections, and to make our country a totalitarian dictatorship. Wake up America!

I have no problem with the search if legislation is passed which takes into account the possibility of nefarious information-fishing on the hard drive - perhaps an independent evidence review committee, with judicial and legislative branch oversight, which could vet that the executive doesn't get to see sensitive people's business stuff...

The FBI and other members of the justice branch should be able to pursue the leads in a criminal case wherever that case may lead - including into the protected offices of the conressional members, however - unless they have reason to believe that the whole constutuancy who voted for this representative, and all the pending legislation which has yet to appear on the house floor is involved in the criminal act, then they have quite blatantly overstepped the issue of cirminal activity. The have indescriminanlt focused not just on the alleged criminal, but made criminal evidence out of the whole of his constituancy, and prematurely damaged, possibly irrevocably the congress' ability to legislate without fear of another branch going on a hunting expedition for whatever suits their fancy. In theory, the materials usable for the investigation will be used, and the remainder returned. However, in practice, that means that the justice, and possible executive branches will get to peruse all the files regardless of content - to determine which content they want to use. Would you care for your priveleged supposedly protected discussions with your family and business and personal and judicial matters made available wholesale to any readers of this or any other column?

Clearly this raid is illegal. Not because Jeffersons is above the law, but because the executive branch is not either! THis is an attempt to cow and intimidate congress and now the Bush admministration has an entire hard drive of sensitive information to rummage through that it IS NOT PRIVELEGED TO HAVE!
Do you seriously think, that with all the lies this administration hands out daily that they are not searching through that hard drive right now? Get a clue people! They can already arrest you without warrant or cause, tap your phone on a whim without any permission, and now they seek to remove the last of our checks and balances of power.
This has a become a fascist regime pretending democracy and Congress had better wise up before it's too late, if it isn't already.
I wouldn't just call this search illegal, I would call it treason! So the attorney general and two other cronies will resign if Bush gives back the documents? Let them! They need to resign. Look who they are and what they've already done! If Jefferson broke the law, then why hasn't he been charged?
Why wasn't Tom Delay's office ever searched? And He was indicted, three times!
We are being lied to, deceived, and manipulated just like another propoganda fake newscast. We've had so many wake up calls that the snooze alarm is set on automatic. Bring on the kingdom of the spineless jellyfish!

Apparently few of the above posters have read the details of this case.

This is all about a legal court case.. not the "Bush Administration". Think Justice Dept. and the court system, as much or more than the administrative side of federal government.

A congressman has been caught re-handed taking millions of dollars in bribes, with $900,000 in cash stored in his freezer!

1. BEFORE the serach, the congressman ignored several court suppoenas for the documents. Stupid, as surely he was aware that he could not just continue to ignore federal court warrants.

Does anyone really want to have a congressman who can ignore court warrants at will?

BTW, the White House is constantly being served with subpoenas for documents. Unlike, Jefferson, the White House always has either turned over the requested documents, or has gone to court to legally fight the request.

2. The search was done by federal agents with a court order. Thus, this was an act by TWO branches of government, not "the Bush administration". Just how immune should a public official be?

3. Such searches are not a partisan attempt at "anything" by the "Bush Administration". Republicans are equally at risk of searches, if they ignore legal subpoenas from federal courts.

4. Searching a hard drive for only relevant material is not practical during a physical search. There are possibly enormous amounts of material on a hard drive, much of which may be password-protected. Searches always take everything, then the files are later opened and assessed by experts in the prosecuter's office.

Step back a bit before throwing stones at anyone here. The legal system is doing its job, and the courts will eventually clarify the extremely vague premise of congressional immunity in such cases.

Its not a check or balance when all three branches are made up of the same corporate stooges (who use propaganda to appeal to you uneducated "christians" and middle class bafoons who vote against their own best interests because of stupidity) who have gerrymandered so much that maybe only 15 seats are ever contested.

Too many people are jumping to conclusions before they know the facts. The Constitution protects the ability of members of Congress to speak as legislators and not be sued for libel or defomation because of what they say in their legislative capacity. It protects them from arrest or being otherwise detained to keep them from carrying out their consitutional responsibilities while Congress is in session.

The Founding Fathers would never have built a wall high enough around a congressman that would permit him (her) to carry out criminal activities from Congressional offices and be proteected from criminal investigation or prosicution,

In the current instance, the Justice department was very careful to respect the limits created by the Constitution. It secured a search warrant from a judge, it set up a screening process so that the material siezed was screened by an independent panel which removed any material not related to the warrant and only the remaining material related to the warrant was then to be seen by prosecutors.

The rusult is that neither the FBI or any prosecutors in the Justice department interfered with the Congreeman's legislative functions or official legislative communications.

Let's calm down and let justice be done!

I may have just missed it in the article but this search was a last resort not the judicial branches immediate choice. Rep. Jefferson was subpeonaed for documents that he was unwilling to hand over quite awhile ago. He refused to comply with the less intrusive option and so the FBI gets to ransack...sounds resonable to me.

Because his family members are implicated in this scandal, the FBI and grand jury are interested in e-mail contacts with the nations and companies involved.

You *need* the entire hard drive to look for "deleted" e-mails and documents. A good tech can recover deleted files, and a forensics specialist can even reconstruct partially over-written deleted data.

If you hate Bush, you can read into this what you want. If you dislike *all corruption* you would want the FBI and courts to have access to all data involved.

How can justice be under the complete control of Bush when the GSA trial started today? Bush is severely constricted by his low popularity. Also, no career investigator is likely to cave to pressure from the temporary resident of the White House. Presidents come and go, but career FBI usually stick it out. Thankfully. Most of these men and women are dedicated professionals. That's why Libby is on trial and Rove might be.

So, yes, take the hard drive. Take documents. If we do not allow searches, executed with a search warrant from the courts, then any member could hide evidence of a crime in his or her office. And yes, presidents and their staffs should be under the same rules -- which is why "executive priv" is nonsense.

I dont have a problem with the search per say but most of you are overlooking the main issue here. Noone cares they took the 90 grand they found in the freezer but something is dangerous when they take the personal documents of a legislator. As long as they make sure the warrent protects the intent of the search and debate claus, i dont care what and where they search. I just worry they will abuse the information they have obtained rather than use it in court.

There are rules to everything, just because you are pulled for speeding is no reason for an anal cavity search for example.. there is also a reason why warrents have to be specific to the crime. It is also very dangerous for all the people here to be so sure it is ok or not ok.. life isnt cut and dry.

I fully agree with the above posting by Steve. By the way, does Congress realize that their phones are also tapped, along with the rest of us? They did it us AND themselves.

I agree that the Speech and Debate Clause probably does not protect Senator Jefferson. I think that the danger is the precedent being set.

Yes, Congress is very corrupt, and this is a bad thing. But if you really, honestly believe that the Executive branch are the ones who are going to save us ("us" being the average American citizens who can only look on and fume), you have a rude awakening coming to you. For five plus years, the Executive branch (FBI, NSA, Justice Dept., etc.) have made it clear that they are no more than lackeys to the Bush administration and their bogus "war on terror." There are reasons for this; the NSA has wanted a "total information awareness" network for some time now -- 9/11 just gave them a unilateral blank check to implement it. For a long time, the law enforcement agencies have been crying about how defendants' rights undermine their ability to catch "bad guys" (without ever grasping the point that its those very rights that make America something worth protecting in the first place). The Executive branch has been chomping at the bit for a long time -- since Watergate, really -- over the prospect of being the only real branch of American government.

So to those who are so happy at the search and wanting to see the "bad guys" punished, I say -- be careful what you wish for. Some day -- very soon -- you may disagree with the Bush administration and find yourself flagged as a "bad guy." And, you'll have no rights to defend yourself, because you'll have voted them all away.

To those who would claim that "if you don't do anything wrong, you have nothing to hide," I ask you -- have you ever done anything that you wanted to keep private? Perhaps a doctor's visit about an embarassing medical condition -- hardly illegal, but also not something you'd want to broadcast around? Have any enemies -- anyone who'd want to publish your dirty laundry to "get at" you? If not, are you sure you never will be in this kind of situation? To put it simply; you don't have to be a criminal to want privacy. In fact there's strong evidence that privacy was considered so basic and essential to democracy that our Founding Fathers quite simply forgot to express adequate protections for it.

Be very careful what you wish for; you just might get it. While I believe that Mr. Jefferson is a scumbag and deserves to go to jail, I think that the cost here is too high -- making the legislative branch subservient to the executive branch is too high of a cost to get one bad guy. This is the same reason that cops can't simply shoot an unarmed bad guy caught stealing; the cost of killing a man is considered higher than the risk of letting a criminal get away with theft.

Be careful what you wish for. Mr. Jefferson is a crook and deserves to go to jail. But not this way. Not like this.

Jefferson and any other Congressman, including the recent drunk driving episode of Congressman Patches Kennedy (D., RI) should not receive special privilege because of their office. Cogress has housed crooks and scoundrels throughout its 225+ years and they cannot be above the law.

In the Roman Empire the Senate was bullied around until finally they were meaningless. And the Pro-Counsel attained status of Emperor and Dictator.

I wonder if the congress knew that when they wrote the clause into the consititution.

I was raised to believe that all citizens are "EQUAL" in the eyes of the law. Are the Congressmen/women not citizens like the rest of us? Our young people are getting the wrong message if we are in effect letting our "elected" leaders get away wiht this stuff. We have a golden chance to prove this to them that the law works. Please don't blow it. Thank you for taking the time to read this

The problem does not lie in whether or not the Constitution has been violated. If this was the issue, we would not be in Iraq, they wouldn't be tapping our phone lines and computers. Any law can be broken and sooner or later, every law WILL be broken. The issue at hand is culpability: who is going to stand up and take responsibility for these actions.

The comment above is written by a true liberal loon!! The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Everything is bad, America is a bad place, we are bad people. Give me a break.

Charge Jefferson with the crime and put him on trial along with any other member of Congress taking bribes. This warrent was issued by the Judical branch. I guess they are all in this together. Right Stevie? By the way "God bless America" is supposed to be like a prayer not a sarcastic remark. Ass.

The real issue here is the contemptuous way the FBI/Justice executed the warrant. They allegedly: a) Denied House council the opportunity to observe the search, b) Denied Jefferson's own council the opportunity to observe the search, c) Didn't notify the House Sergeant at arms, and d) Didn't notify the Speaker of the House.

The FBI/Justice Department have really overreached this time. They were within their rights to EXECUTE the search, but they should have shown a little more respect for the Legislative branch given the historic nature of the search.

The executive branch is really out of control these days asserting strange and wonderful powers here and there. This time they went too far.

Fact is the law clearly states such is permissable in a FELONY case like this. This is not some trivial little crap to intimidate someone. This is the FBI doing their job and a bunch of other corrupt SOB's afraid the same thing will happen to them.

The clause is clearly written to prevent intimidation that some speak of, and is clearly doing so. Now if such intimidation is tried by the executive branch, it is the judicial branches job to stop it by not issuing a warrant. Now if that fails then there area appeals to higher judicial and executive powers to correct the matter.

It's not perfect, it depends on humans after all. But it is the way this is supposed to work. It is much more difficult for two branches to fail in their duty at the same time than it is for one after all. The congress(and much of the media) is making a big mistake trying to protect it's members from a proper investigation though, people will be less likely to believe them if the tactics they talk about are actually used at a later point.

Bribery, both legal and illegal, is at an all time high in both the Senate and House. Legal bribery includes campaign contributions and "soft" money. Sorry, politicians, we're not as stupid as you believe.

Corporations and lobbyists, such as Jack Abramoff, are pulling the strings of our elected officials. Do you think common folks like us would be able to donate to charity loot taken from a convicted felon, as senators and congressmen did with Abramoff gifts? Nope, we'd be charged with conspiracy.

It should be educational to see how Congressman William Jefferson explains $90,000 in cash in his freezer and the $100,000 he accepted from an FBI informant.

As for Hastert and the others who doth protest too loudly (to paraphrase Shakespeare), you can almost smell the smoke from the crosscut shredders working overtime.

The Administration has already taken the position that NSA wrongdoing is "protected from such an intrusion in a way no other citizen is". It has refused to give justice department investigators clearance, and thus created a zone where not only are executive department employees free from search, they are free to commit any crime or violation of the constitution they choose, subject only to the review of their boss.

Two tendencies of the Bush administration that will surely be mentioned in the history books are the quest for unchecked Presidential power and the options not taken. Here is yet another case where multiple options were available. But the one taken was the one which sets a precedent that will allow this and future presidents to act unilaterally.

It's amazing how some folks use any opportunity to rant their hatred for the current President. If Jefferson ignored warrants he deserved to get searched, according to 2 branched of government. I am pretty disgusted with most politicians and feel those complaining most likely have something to hide themselves. People need to read and learn about their elected officials, then vote the bums out of office. If we're willing to settle for garbage, that's what we'll get.

I like a lot of the comments here. At the end of the day for me is why the Congress thinks they are above the law. They are elected officials responsible to citizens, thus they should not be subject to special priveledges that a citizen does not have. The issue is not allowing such searching to become a tool to keep outspoken congressmen in line. That's why judicial appointments at any level should not be appointed by the president. This way the checks and balance system is more effective and allows for more people, whether officials or not, to be kept in line with the law...not above, nor below it.

So some say that one branch of government should not have the power to get criminal information from another branch even if there was a search warrant... how soon we forget. Anyone ever heard of the "Nixon Tapes:? Not only relevant tapes were released, but discussions with heads of state and his cleaning lady. Where was the outcry then?

I can't believe some of the stupid comments on here. The Represenatives are not citizens, they are protected by the Constitution through the speech and debate clause! If you are saying the Constitution shouldn't have that clause in it, then vote for someone to make an amendment. Don't be stupid and say the action was right when it is against the Constitution. The Constitution had that clause for a reason, and it is exactly to protect either members of the Houses from what Bush is trying to do, intimadate the people he doesn't like.

how come everyone else knows whats on the hard drive and i cant even find out which one of the congressmans computers it came from............gosh, you folks sure are smart

The checks and balances worked perfectly.

Those that protest too much, perhaps, deserve a LOT more scrutiny!

It is about time we cleaned up Capitol Hill ... I suspect that there are a very large majority of Congressmen that cannot bear close scrutiny. I welcome the housecleaning that SHOULD come as long OVERDUE.

"Why the need to raid his office"? We all know that with a "good enough" (eh) lawyer, criminals often get off free. So, it IS in the best interest of the FBI, investigators, prosecutors, etc. to get as much evidence as can be had. Also, maybe he wasn't acting alone, & getting evidence on any others involved is generally a "good thing".

The argument that you should have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide, or more specifically the inference, that if you are afraid then you must have something to hide, and thus are the enemy, is *fascism*.

Just because you have something to hide doesn't necessitate that you've done something wrong. Doctors call it client-patient privledge. Guess what. Your doctor has something to hide. Your medical records.

No one is above the law, not congress and not the executive branch, specifically because The United States is *not* a fascist country. Your medical records are not absolutely sacrosanct, but they are afforded special recognition and additional protection. Not because you are a criminal with something to hide, but because client-patient privledge protects us all from the malicious who hide behind the face of righteousness.

Congress, as an equal power branch of government both deserves and requires special recognition and additional protection from the intrusive powers of the other two branches, not because they have done something wrong (though yes, I'm sure some of them have), but because the separation of powers protects us all from the malicious who hide behind the face of righteousness.

Rick, I can appreciate your enthusiasm, but it was only $90,000 in Jefferson's freezer, not $900,000.

The Speech and Debate clause was originally put in the Constitution to protect members of Congress from distracting civil suits so they'd be able to get their work done. The language states that congressmen will be immune from "all Cases, except Treason, Felony, and Breach of the Peace", which ought to be pretty specific that Jefferson isn't above the warranted search of his office by duly authorized FBI agents.

This is going to be interesting to watch because there's been debate over the clause for quite a while as to just what limits it does cover.

Fasten your seat belts -- it's going to be a bumpy ride!

Fear not good people of America! Our constitution works! Like others, Rep. William Jefferson has been caught by the checks and balances of our system of government. The FBI has him taking cash to forget about being fair and there seems to be a pattern of this foolishness. This is one fellow the good democrats of Louisiana should replace. Even a draft lottery for service in congress would have better odds of producing a representative for the district.

As an Attorney, I find the arguement over seperation of powers severly misconstrued. The "seperation of powers" doctrine generally refers to the "institutional" nature of the three branches, and does not refer to an individual. If congress were to pass a law that prohibited a search of congressional offices, that would give rise to a "seperation of powers" question. The mere exercise of one branch (the executive)securing a criminal search warrent from another branch (the judiciary), and executing it on an "individuals'" office that happens to be a member of the third branch, is not a proper set of circumstances to give rise to a seperation of power arguement. If it were so--congressional offices could be used for any form of espionage, etc., and the other two branches would be powerless to stop it. That is not what the constitution was meant to prevent with the seperation of powers provisions. If you wanted a clear violation of the doctrine, the executive would have issued a executive supoena/warrent on its own, and executed it on a co-equal branch. That would have raised the question. This case does not.

Using the logic employed by many above we can conclude they'd be ok with congress issuing a subpoena and then raiding the Oval Office and taking everything inside, including every computer and piece of paper.

A subpoena issued by Congress is as valid as a warrant issued by a judge.

Does ANYONE think the Congress has the right or power to take whatever it wants from the White House and Oval Office without FIRST talking to the President or his council?

No matter how you cut it, this was one of the grossest violations of the constitution in our history and defending the lawlessness in this White House has become a full time job for our nations' newspapers.

In the american police state all are subject to search and no one is held accountable, they might be terrorist!

Having taken an oath 30 years ago to defend the Constitution of the United States I am absolutely infuriated that the Congress is trying to use it as a shield for their illegal activities. This is a direct result of our nation's drift to "professional" politicians versus citizens doing their duty by serving a term or two and then going back to their "real" livelyhood. They have become our version nobility - no longer is our government designed to serve the people. They now, like the nobility the nation broke free from, use their position only to further themselves. Maybe it is time for term limits. At any rate, I agree with Burson (first poster). I will be voting against any incumbent in the upcoming election - except maybe those like Dave Vitter and Jeff Sessions who take the position that the Constitution was not meant to endorse any amount of illegal activity conducted from a Congressman's office.

No one is above the law, but that's not really the point. Senators, congressmen and judges have all been convicted without throwing the balance of powers into question. Just like the controversy over warranteless domestic surveillance and Presidential signing statements aren't about "fighting terrorism", they're about this administrations incredibly bold and unapologetic assertion of plenary, unchecked powers. The President and Attorney General claim no one is above the law, but in different circumstances, they claim that THEY are, indeed, above the law. (for our own good, of course.. fighting terrorists requires absolute secrecy and no oversight) Lawsuits, inquiries and oversight, they claim, put us all in danger. Will we really accept this?

Just like it's galling to protect the free speech rights of obnoxious, hateful protestors or the right to a fair trial for terrorists and pedophiles, it is painful that a separation of powers issue comes up over a case which seems to involve a dirty politician.

See this for what it is. Our Attorney General is out of control.

Actually Chris meant "God Bless America" as prayer because I actually DO love this country and what it stands for, I was not being sarcastic. That's why I'm so upset when I see people who claim to be patriots gradually dismantle the things that make this country great.

Just to let you know who I am: I support our troops by doing fund raising for care packages as well as christmas and holiday events for servicemen and women and their children. Maybe you do that stuff too - I hope so because they do a fantastic job in terrible conditions while sunshine patriots go off to picnics on Memorial Day and don't even think about what the day is for.

Why do I mention that, not to celebrate myself, but to let you know that you should n't assume just because you don't like my post that you know who or what kind of a person I am.

I want to see this country go back to being a champion for truth, justice and true democracy. I'm naive probably. But I worry that, as the Executive branch gets more brazen in their grab for power, eventually a tipping point may be coming and we may not like what that results in. Am I over-reacting? Maybe. I hope so. But what if I and the others expressing similar opinions here are not quite as crazy as some of you reading this may be tempted to assume? We all believed in WMDs right? I did. Am I a liberal loon? Maybe, but I also used to be a Republican voter until this President's first term shocked me into shifting parties.

I love it that by ordering the seized files to be sealed our pathetic excuse for a president infuriated Congress and caused his obedient attorney general and FBI director to threaten to quit.

PS Isn't it also a riot that Bush thinks everyone in the US should speak English, a language he himself routinely mangles?

The problem, and reason the search was illegal, is that the congressman was not allowed to have his lawyer present, which is his constitutional right. So, this otherwise legal search, has become an illegal search and any evidence collected is inadmissible in court. Sloppy, very sloppy work on the part of the FBI. This is a very clear issue that has been clouded by people who feel their personal power has been threatened. Point blank: the "except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace" clause means the FBI can arrest, detain, search and question a congressmen and search their offices when they have committed , or are reasonably believed to be engaged in the commission a felony and the FBI has obtained a search warrant. Since the invention of free software to hide and encrypt incriminating data, it has become necessary to take entire hard drives for a proper search to be conducted by digital forensics experts.

Where has Congress been these last six years?

They go along with the US invasion of Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction found. There was no link between Saddam and Al Qaida. There were no civilians dancing in the streets and welcoming our soldiers as liberators. Most of Congress remains silent.

They go along with the NSA eavesdropping on the phone calls of US citizens without court orders. Most of Congress remains silent.

They go along with the compiling of lists of phone calls made and received by people who aren't even suspected of criminal or terrorist activity. Most of Congress remains silent.

They go along with a law permitting the federal government to arrest people without warrant and hold them without charge and deny them access to an attorney. Most of Congress remains silent.

They go along with a law authorizing the government to inspect every book any person has taken out of the library. Most of Congress remains silent.

And when the FBI armed with a court sanctioned search warrant goes into the office of a Congressman who has disregarded court orders to produce documents, they are SHOCKED, SHOCKED at this violation of the US Constitution. Now they are speaking out.

Have they been asleep for the last six years? Are we to believe that they are rushing to defend the Constitution? Or do they seek to shield themselves from a scrutiny far less invasive than what they permit against the rest of the American people?

Consider that the FBI had tried for 8 months to get Congressional support for the search, and had been denied.

Consider that the FBI had sent in documented sub-poenas, repeatedly, and they had been arrogantly ignored.

Consider that the action was reviewed and authorized by the Judicial Branch, before the FBI (which resides within the Executive Branch) took action, a clear case of those infamous checks and balances at work.

Consider that the Constitution specifically removes Congressional immunity in the case of felony.

Consider that a Congressman felt so secure by the precidence of absolute sanctity of his office that he chose to hide the money in the freezer, rather than taking it home.

Those who are complaining against this... rather than repeat the boring, hate-mongering credo of 'Blame Bush!', how about offering a viable alternative.

What should a stymied Judicial Branch do when faced with deliberate stonewalling for 8 months by the Legislative Branch, in the lawful pursuit of an investigation of a member of the Legislative Branch, where they have overwhelming evidence of felony offense?

Stop the hate-mongering and be rational, and if disagree with what occurred, then offer something viable instead. Don't be a hater ;)

What most in this debate fail to realize is that a felony has been committed - at least in the eyes of the investigators. In suspect of that, it follows one of the requirements of the speech and debate clause.

Congress would not hesitate (and indeed they have historically) used similar methods on Administrations when suspect of wrongdoing or felonies. Crying that they are exempt, hiding behind a polititian's curtain of "branches" is a foul attempt to protect themselves from the very investigations which threatens one of their own.

If they have nothing to hide, and indeed abide by the law they swore to protect, why are they so worried?

Congress is outraged at getting a taste of the Bush Administration's assault on the Constitution. A day late and a dollar short.

It will take generations to repair what this administration has done to the United States of America. That is, if it can be repaired.

In the constitutional quotation, 'Felony' is excluded, bribery of an elected official is a felony, if by a foriegn agent, it is 'treason'.
I think that if someone has $90,000 in their fridge then Lucy got some splainin to do. Let's discuss diverting federal assets away from his constituancy during a huricane to get to his house to clean out more evidence.
Trying to pin Jeffersons stupidity on Bush is just partisan whining - admit it - Jefferson is just another publicly funded Louisana crook.

As others have said above, the real problem and irony here for average Americans is that we could care less about Jefferson if he, as appears, is corrupt. But we do want our Congress to stand up for our rights and freedoms. It is a travesty that Congress only finds something to scream about in executive branch's successive power grabs when it might finally affect them very directly. Even those of us who might have felt some solidarity with Congress about this feel little sympathy for this cynical bunch of self-interested cowards.

In a case like this, let's tell our government what our government tells us:

ITS FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR AND YOU ARE UNPATRIOTIC IF YOU OBJECT TO UNREASONABLE SEARCH AND SEIZURE.

They searched a man's office, a representative of us- he should have NOTHING TO HIDE and if he does, he is not our representative. I am all for searching the living hell out of every single republican's office to bring SUNLIGHT to this dark empire because..

DEMOCRACY CAN ONLY SURVIVE IN SUNLIGHT AND FACISM LOVES THE DARK

SEARCH THEM ALL JAIL THEM ALL

Let morality trickle down.

Please understand that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney are really kind and understanding men who would never hurt anyone who does what they are told. Protecting constitutional rights of individual people and their representitives is a sweet and quaint idea that has run it's course. It's too messy to have powerful judiciary and legislative 'counter-balences.' The justice department, the military, the spooks, state department, and all government is best run answering to only a trim, fit, CEO daddy type president. The executive branch is occupied by the deciders so it is the only place where secrets should be kept. A "Big Business" model is the only way to keep Americans safe, secure, free from terrorists, and driving whatever vehicle they want.

Yes, housecleaning. If I remember my history, Stalin was a pretty good housecleaner. Come to think of it, so was Saddam. Yeah, that's some good democracy, to be sure.

Maybe my mind is weak but this seems to me to be a super complicated issue.

I recall one of my most liked quotes. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link. I think that applies here.

"There has to be a line at some point or there will be no lines left and we can all kiss goodbye to our rights." You are right Steve....Start kissing....We can legally go into a house at 3:30 AM and discharge 27 rounds because the guy appeared to reach for a weapon???? The wrong address????? oooops oh well. By the way no conviction.... None of this is new.

We keep making laws but we don't enforce the laws on the books presently. So we make additional gun laws and the bandits kill with knives drugs gas fire....or guns, since we DO NOT enforce zero tolerance.

Becky I would like to paint a picture. I am putting you in a position where you are the super chef of the nation.

I am with the FBI. There has been a crime committed with a kitchen tool. We think it is you who have committed the crime and we have obtained the proper warrants. We have gone into your "office", house and whatever and removed ALL tools books, etc.

I am sure you will get them back after the investigation is over....once you fill out the proper forms requesting which tools you would like returned.

Do you close down shop? Do you buy all the tools again and open for business in a couple of weeks or so? Do you pay the mortgage? How do you recover those special formulas that only aunt Beverly knew and shared with you?

Oh have I failed to mention that after keeping the tools for perhaps years and bankrupting you in the process we agreed that you weren't the guilty culprit after all????

Basically it ain't that important if it has never happened to you. At least it is much harder to see isn't it. Remember, innocent until proven guilty...

Thanks for allowing me to share Becky

While we are on checks and balances, lets spend a couple more million mowing down buildings and rebuilding them so we can look for the remains of Hoffa....

Do you really think we would have done the same for Smith, Jones, Picka Name????

Great job security if you can get it. Meanwhile the average folks lose their average or below average income on the TRW, Computerland, Vanstar, Enron, and the list goes on...

We'll convict some of the top guns....maybe...They will get a slap on the wrist because most times the golden rule applies...("them thats gots the gold makes the rules") someone will get the money from the fines, but I can say one thing for sure that I have experienced. Those average folks will NEVER get the money from those fines...They will just take 2 jobs to attempt to approach the level to pay all their bills...They will likely never catch up since they have lost retirement...We don't have to properly fund that now, The government said so, Airlines don't have to give it although they agreed to it....

They of course can't retire as social insecurity doesn't start for a couple more years or so.

By the way Steve I don't know how old you are but if you are old enough to have an earlier version of the social insecurity card you would find that it specifically says..."not to be used for identification" Gee, if this rule had been ENFORCED, it would have been more difficult to steal your identity, don't you think??

Whatever happened to the value of ones word and the handshake that Americans used to stand by??

Steve, somehow we need to take back our country and all it used to stand for. We the people have lost tons of our rights. I'm with you.

God Bless America.

I don't see a problem with FBI agents with valid warrants conducting a legal search of any congressman's office if they have probable cause. From what we have been told, Mr. Jefferson was abusing the power of his office. Even our congressmen are expected to obey the law and pay the penalty if they break it.

Of course, these search powers can be abused by the executive branch. George Bush is easily the worst president we've ever had, and I wouldn't put any sort of dirty tricks past Kark Rove, George and Dick. Since some of the rubber-stamp Republican congressional leaders are finally getting worried about this president's abuse of power, it couldn't hurt to remind them that they control the treasury and also have the power to impeachment the president.

Since the Congressman was caught red-handed committing a 'Felony' - the seizure is legal.

People should be pretty ashamed to see their elected officials rallying, and attempting to legislate congressional 'immunity' from the laws they force us to comply with.

It'd be one thing if the Congressman wasn't caught committing a felony prior (he accepted a bribe from an undercover agent before his office was searched.) but this is not the case here.

Beware, America - if congress rules itself immune from corruption investigations. If they are able to pass legislation to that effect, our only recourse for fighting corruption is our right to bare arms.

The hubris doesn't speak well of our 'transparency'. Write congress, help set them straight.

I would like to address comments by Jonathan Turley concerning his opinion that the seizure of the congressman's hard drives was overbroad. Any computer evidence examiner would tell you that he/she must first obtain a true bit by bit copy of the entire hard drive. This step is not a search of the hard drive for evidence, it is the preservation of how the disk was at the time of it's seizure. The next step would be to conduct a forensic examination of the drive using software tools and a search of specific evidence detailed in the warrant; Most software tools keep a log of your actions. If you overstep the "items to be seized" provisions in the warrant, you open up yourself to sanctions and or suppression of any evidence you may find. Let us await the results of their investigation and court proceedings before passing judgment on the FBI- Keep your chin up W.F.O. and keep digging for the truth.

Term Limits

I am all for upholding the Constitution, but this argument isn't being held in a court of law where it belongs, but in the halls of representatives who all have a lot to lose IF they are illegally hiding illegal activities.

I myself don't know all of the laws pertaining to this search, and seizure, but I cannot believe that we all have the right to have our lawyers present when a search warrant is being executed. I've never heard of an instance where this has happened.

The investigation of Rep. William Jefferson has been ongoing for many months, he should have known this would happen after ignoring several demands by the courts to hand over certain items, and the resulting clammor by our representatives causes me to think they have something to hide.

I'm going to be watching the actions of my representative very closely in all of this. You should too.

Any excuse to attack Bush will do for a moonbat. Remember that Ms. Sheehan even blamed him for Katrina _occurring_.

Since Mr. Jefferson is accused of a Felony, he is subject to the same rights and privledges as the rest of us. Do you really think the Feds would give the average person a chance to hide other items (as Jefferson already did during the search of his home)?

Anybody who thinks the Feds are really nice and take only things they need when you make them search your office by refusing to turn over documents needs to get a clue.

Reality check.

Congress only has a problem when this process also applies to them. There is really only one solution...

No more Demoblicans - vote Libertarian for Congress - end the cycle of corruption.