Democrat integrity
>Supreme Court stays out of Jefferson search dispute
by Bruce Alpert, The Times-Picayune
Monday March 31, 2008
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to consider an appeal court's ruling that the 2006 FBI raid of Rep. William Jefferson's Capitol Hill office was unconstitutional.
The Court of the Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled last year that FBI agents, who conducted the first-ever search of a congressional office May 20-21, 2006, should have let the New Orleans Democrat review documents before seizing them.
The High Court did not give a reason for refusing to take up the issue. Jefferson has pleaded not guilty to charges of soliciting more than $500,000 in bribes while using his office to broker business deals in Africa.
In its appeal, the Justice Department said that the appellate court ruling would make it virtually impossible to search a member's office because it allowed the congressional representative, who presumably would know what the government is looking for, to remove potentially incriminating evidence.
The Appellate Court said that there is no prohibition on searching a member's office. But because material dealing with legislative and political matters is off limits to the executive branch and presumably would be located in a congressional office, the government should have allowed Jefferson to review any materials before taking them.
Despite losing access to some of the materials taken from his office, the Justice Department won a grand jury indictment of Jefferson in June, 2007, on 16 counts, including bribery and racketeering. Jefferson maintains his innocence.
A trial, originally slated to begin in January in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., has been delayed over another legal issue - an appeal by Jefferson over a pre-trial ruling by the Judge T.S. Ellis III. Ellis refused a Jefferson motion to throw out 14 of the 16 charges on grounds that the grand jury heard discussion from witnesses of Jefferson's congressional activities in violation of the Constitution's Speech or Debate clause.
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