Hastert, other Congressmen, demanding FBI return documents from search
House Speaker Dennis Hastert demanded Wednesday that the FBI surrender documents it seized and remove agents involved in the weekend raid of Rep. William Jefferson’s office, under what lawmakers of both parties said were unconstitutional circumstances.
“We think those materials ought to be returned,” Hastert said, adding that the FBI agents involved “ought to be frozen out of that (case) just for the sake of the constitutional aspects of it.”
The Saturday night search of Jefferson’s office on Capitol Hill brought Democrats and Republicans together in rare election-year accord, with both parties protesting agency conduct they said violated the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.
How, exactly, is it a violation of the separation of powers to conduct a search for evidence of a suspected crime in full compliance with the law? And just what is the Speaker suggesting would have been the method of handling it? Where in the Constitution does it reserve the right and authority to investigate violations of the law by sitting members of Congress to the very body they are members of? In short, given the general feeling about Congress these days why should the American people trust Congress to actually conduct a full and fair (to the People) investigation?
There is just no sidestepping the fact that this smacks of people complaining that their priviledged status isn’t being respected; that they feel it unfair that they are being held to the same standard as the rest of us. This will most certainly do nothing to improve the public’s perception of Congress and, regardless of their alleged efforts to the contrary, it appears to this layman’s eye that they are defending Jefferson’s ability to break the law and take bribes. The GOP should have gotten the hell out of the way and let Jefferson deal with the FBI himself. Just like the rest of us do.
