Raiding Jefferson’s Office

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


I’ve been trying to figure out whether there was actually a problem or not with the FBI raid on William Jefferson’s offices. Certainly the raid on a member of Congress’ office was unprecedented. And certainly Republican leaders such as Denny Hastert and John Boehner are up in arms about it, calling it a separation of powers issue. But does that make it illegal? Or, for that matter, wrong?

On the legal front, Orin Kerr says that, seeing as how the FBI got a warrant from a judge, and seeing as how Jefferson had refused to comply with Justice Department subpoenas for documents relating to the bribery investigation, the raid was probably constitutional, despite the Constitution’s Speech and Debate clause declaring that members of Congress be exempt from arrest and questioning while in session. (The clause seems to be there precisely to prevent the executive branch from harassing legislators, the sort of thing you see dictatorships around the world doing all the time.)

On the other hand, Mark Kleiman says we really shouldn’t be looking forward to a time when the FBI starts policing members of Congress and regulating corruption, especially since the Justice Department seems to be going after things that are nominally legal. Now granted, if Congress has no interest in policing itself, then someone has to do it, but it’s not clear that law enforcement organization with a “deserved reputation for playing dirty” is the agency to do it. After all, these sorts of raids are certainly prone to abuse:

In particular, now that the precedent has been established, what’s to keep the Bureau from raiding the offices of Congressional Democrats in leak investigations? Finding a judge to sign a search warrant is trivial, especially in any case with the “national security” label.

Maybe that’s a pretty outlandish concern, but it’s not impossible. And more realistically, what’s to stop a vindictive administration from getting the FBI to investigate bribery charges on various Senators and members of Congress for political gain? After all, corruption is a pretty strong accusation, and can certainly damage or weaken a sitting member of Congress, even if it’s totally false. That’s not to say that Jefferson’s innocent or that the FBI is simply being vindictive in this case, but there are definitely issues to worry about.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate