Lawmakers appear to make it official: they do consider themselves above the law
I find it indefensible that members of the House of Representatives would call the warranted search of the offices of people under investigation for white-collar crimes “unconstitutional.” That’s precisely what Speaker Hastert and others are doing as regards the FBI’s search of the Congressional offices of Democrat Congressman Jefferson:
The search may have overstepped constitutional boundaries, House leaders said as the congressman under investigation pledged to stay in office.
House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio told reporters Tuesday that the Congress will somehow speak to “this issue of the Justice Department’s invasion of the legislative branch. In what form, I don’t know.”
“I’ve got to believe at the end of the day it’s going to end up across the street at the Supreme Court,” Boehner said.
Hastert said Monday the Justice Department had never before crossed a line that separates Congress from the executive branch by searching a congressional office while investigating a member of Congress.
The search warrant was issued by a federal district judge in suburban Virginia, based on an affidavit from FBI investigators outlining some of the evidence that have accumulated in the case, including video tape of Jefferson accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant, who agreed to have her conversations with the congressman taped.
Agents later found all but $10,000 of the cash — in marked bills — hidden in a freezer in one of the congressman’s homes, according to the affidavit.
His homes in New Orleans and the Washington area were searched by FBI agents last August.
The man is under investigation for accepting bribes while in public office. How is searching his office a breach of the separations powers? The man put himself squarely in the jurisdiction of law enforcement the second he participated in the bribery, which the tapes referenced in the story display in graphic detail. Is the Speaker and Congressman Boehner suggesting that the cops shouldn’t be allowed to perform their standard investigatory procedures? How, then, is this crime to be investigated, by the House Sergeant-at-Arms?
This is stupid and it’s insulting. The American people have no doubts that when a crime is committed it is right and proper for the cops to search homes and offices. Hell, have these so-called public servants never watched CSI? For the Republicans – the party of law and order and support for law enforcement – to be flapping their gums over some built-in immunity to criminal investigation by virtue of the separation of powers concept is ludicrous and it puts some king-sized ammo into the pockets of the Democrats.
Speaker Hastert and the rest of them should be applauding the FBI, not suggesting they’ve exceeded their bounds. If they can’t do that, they should shut up and get back to work.
