The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear an appeal by the Justice Department to overturn a court ruling saying the May 20, 2006, raid by FBI agents of Rep. William J. Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office was unconstitutional.
In a major victory for the Louisiana Democrat, the ruling means that thousands of pages of documents and other items seized in the raid, none of which have been turned over to prosecutors, will have to be reviewed to determine whether they are privileged under the Speech or Debate Clause — a constitutional privilege that protects lawmakers from legal action for legislative activities.
In August, a federal appeals court panel ruled that FBI agents violated Mr. Jefferson’s constitutional rights when they raided his office in a bribery and corruption investigation. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit required the Justice Department to return privileged documents taken from the Rayburn Building, but did not include the $90,000 that FBI agents found in the freezer of the lawmaker’s Washington home.
The appeals court said the agents crossed the line when they seized records without giving Mr. Jefferson a chance to argue that some involved privileged legislative business. The court rejected a Justice Department claim that invalidating the search would prohibit the FBI from seeking a lawmaker’s documents in a criminal probe.
The FBI was investigating Mr. Jefferson’s promotion of telecommunications equipment and services in Africa. In June, a federal grand jury in Alexandria returned a 16-count indictment accusing Mr. Jefferson, 60, of seeking bribes for himself and his family. He was charged with racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Mr. Jefferson pleaded not guilty in June.
His attorney, Robert Trout, said he was “pleased” with the high court’s decision not to “disturb the D.C. Circuit’s ruling that the Justice Department’s search of Congressman Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office was unconstitutional.
“From the very moment we learned of the FBI’s raid on a Congressional office — the first in our nation’s history — we were convinced the Department of Justice was out of bounds,” Mr. Trout said. “Now, almost two years later, we are gratified that our initial judgment about this unprecedented raid has finally been confirmed.”
He also called the FBI sting operation that targeted Mr. Jefferson and the ongoing criminal prosecution “similarly misguided,” saying his client will be vindicated.
The indictment said that from August 2000 to August 2005, Mr. Jefferson used his office to “corruptly seek, solicit and direct that things of value” be paid to him and his family in exchange for his performing official acts.
Two of Mr. Jefferson’s associates struck plea agreements with prosecutors, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and were sentenced.
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