Can the FBI search a congressional office?
Posted by Moonage on 24 May 2006 | Tagged as: Ethics, The Legal Process
William Jefferson is just tickled pink that some lawmakers are distracting his actions by crying foul over the FBI searching Jefferson’s office. I’m no lawyer, I don’t even play one on tv, so I read a lawyer’s take on it. Particularly, I read Orin Kerr’s take on it.
Orin does not come to a definitive conclusion, and defers to any “Speech and Debate Clause experts”. To which he’s already gotten some very insightful responses. Some kind of over my head. But, my gut feeling is no legislator is ABOVE the law. Especially when it’s not in the duty of legislating. The FBI did not interfere with Jefferson’s ability to vote, so that Pat Kennedy thing is not an issue. It may not have happened before, but that’s no justification for it not to happen. There was clear evidence that Jefferson had committed a crime using his position. There is no reason to assume that he did not facilitate that crime during the course of doing his job. Needless to say, his job has a lot to do with where he does it.
The only question I have is what does the FBI do if it stumbles across information that is classified during this search?
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