Congress is not above the law - 2 branches to 1

A federal judge has ruled that the FBI search of Congressman William Jefferson's congressional office was perfectly legal.

Congress' effectiveness "is not threatened by permitting congressional offices to be searched pursuant to validly issued search warrants," said Hogan, who had approved the FBI's request to conduct the overnight search of Jefferson's office.

The decision is hardly unexpected, both because the legal answer is so clear and because Judge Hogan, who issued the ruling, was the judge who issued the search warrant for Congressman Jefferson's office to begin with. Judge Hogan rejected the unassailable Congressional privilege asserted by Jefferson and the Congressional leadership of both parties succinctly:

"The power to determine the scope of one's own privilege is not available to any other person, including members of the co-equal branches of government: federal judges ... or the President of the United States."

Read the whole opinion [pdf warning]. I am astounded that the joint brief submitted on behalf of Speaker Hastert and Minority Leader Pelosi was so weak. Judge Hogan gives it due consideration, and then makes short shrift of it. As Judge Hogan notes, taken to their logical conclusion, Jefferson's and Congress' arguments would require investigators to give prior notice to any congressman prior to execution of a search warrant in any location which might have legislatively privileged documents in them. Given the "culture of corruption" we keep hearing about, who in their right mind would say that congressmen suspected of breaking the law must be given notice, and time to clean "privileged" [read: incriminating] material before the cops showed up.