House Fires Latest Salvo in Battle over Jefferson RaidYesterday, the General Counsel for the House of Representatives weighed in on the FBI’s raid of Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-LA) congressional office, filing an amicus brief on behalf of Jefferson.
The search, according to the House, was both “unconstitutional and unnecessary.”
You can add that to Jefferson’s lawyer’s argument that the search was “an affront to the Constitutional separation of powers and a violation of the absolute privilege and immunity that Members of Congress enjoy under the Speech or Debate clause.”
The Justice Department, for its part, argues that the issue is simple: as the Supreme Court has decided before, Members of Congress aren’t above the law.
And in response to the House’s brief yesterday, which argues that lawyers from the House should have been warned of the search, a Justice Department official told The Washington Post “that the suggestion that ‘a target of a criminal investigation be informed before a search takes place is a nonstarter. That clearly places a congressman above the law.’”
We’ve posted all the briefs in our document collection. All TPMm separation-of-powers junkies are encouraged to give the briefs a read.
Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan will hear arguments on this June 16.
Meanwhile, the question is being pursued on two other fronts: the Justice Department is negotiating directly with the House about search procedures in the future, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) is pressing forward with his “Reckless Justice” Hearings, during which he has discussed the possibility of legislating the problem away.