Prometheus 6

Court: FBI Violated Constitution in Raid
By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 3, 2007; 2:18 PM

A federal appeals court today ruled that the FBI violated the Constitution during a search of Rep. William J. Jefferson's Capitol Hill office last year and ordered the agency to return all privileged materials.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia did not say that a raid on a congressional office was unconstitutional. But it ruled FBI agents skirted the law when they viewed paper documents during the May raid before giving the Louisiana Democrat an opportunity to challenge whether the papers were protected under the Constitution's "speech or debate" clause.

The court, however, stopped short of ordering the return of all seized documents:

"Although the search of Congressman's Jefferson's paper files violated the Speech or Debate Clause, his argument does not support granting the relief that he seeks, namely the return of all seized documents . . . whether privileged or not."

The ruling was hailed by Jefferson's attorney Robert Trout. "As we urged, the court ruled that the Congressman had an absolute right to review his records first and shield privileged legislative material from review by the executive branch," Trout said in a statement. "Today's opinion underscores the fact the Department of Justice is required to follow the law, and it is bound to abide by the Constitution."

Still, it was unclear what impact the ruling would have on Jefferson's criminal case. The government previously contended it did not use any privileged documents in preparing its 16-count indictment that charged Jefferson with taking hundreds of dollars in bribes to push through high-tech business deals in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon.