Anger after FBI raid of House member’s office

Pelosi: Jefferson should step down
Constitutional confrontation aside, Pelosi said Jefferson should resign from the powerful Ways and Means committee.

“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,” Democratic leader Pelosi wrote him.

He refused.

At the same time, Jefferson filed a motion asking the federal judge in the case to order the FBI to return the material it seized from his office.

The Justice Department dug in, repeating that the raid was carried out only after Jefferson refused to comply with a subpoena and only then with a search warrant signed by a judge.

“The actions were lawful and necessary under these unique circumstances,” said Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

The constitutional fight was set in motion last Saturday night, when the FBI raided Jefferson’s legislative office in pursuit of evidence against him in an investigation of whether he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bribery deal.

First such raid in over 200 years
Historians say the search was the first of its kind in Congress’ 219-year history. Reaction has crossed party lines and brought in all three branches of government.

Hastert, Pelosi and several other leaders of both parties in the Senate say the weekend raid violated the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.

“These constitutional principles were not designed by the founding fathers to place anyone above the law,” Hastert and Pelosi said. “Rather, they were designed to protect the Congress and the American people from abuses of power, and those principles deserve to be vigorously defended.”

Not all lawmakers agreed.

Shielding their own?
“These self-serving separation of power arguments” have no basis in law, said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., in a letter to GOP leaders. He noted that search warrants had previously been served on members’ homes, including Jefferson’s.

“A distinction that would treat searches in their offices completely differently is superficial and baseless,” Vitter wrote. “The American people will come to one conclusion — that congressional leaders are trying to protect their own from valid investigations.”

No one was defending the Louisiana congressman other than Jefferson himself.

“With respect, I decline to do so,” he wrote back, leaving it to the House to try to pressure him out of the seat or strip him of the post by majority vote.

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