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July 11, 2006

Hooray For Judge Hogan!

He ruled that the raid on "Freezer Bill" Jefferson's office was legit:

WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Monday upheld the FBI's unprecedented raid of a congressional office, saying that barring searches of lawmakers' offices would turn Capitol Hill into "a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime."

Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan rejected requests from lawmakers and Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) to return material seized by the FBI in a May 20-21 search of Jefferson's office.

The overnight search was part of a 17-month bribery investigation of Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat.

In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments by Jefferson and a bipartisan group of House leaders that the raid violated the Constitution's protections against intimidation of elected officials.

Hogan acknowledged the "unprecedented" nature of the case. But he said the lawmakers' "sweeping" theory of legislative privilege "would have the effect of converting every congressional office into a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime."

I love that line: "a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime." Sadly, that is in fact be what Washington is, but heck, no reason to ensconce that in law, now is there?

Enjoy this judge's brilliance, because with rulings like this:

A member of Congress is bound by the same laws as ordinary citizens, said the judge, who had approved the FBI's request to conduct the overnight search of Jefferson's office.

There's not a snowball's chance in hell that his name will ever be approved in the Senate to move higher up the judicial foodchain.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California also said Congress will continue to work* with the Justice Department on procedures for searches.

Gosh, ol' Goggle Eyes, that's awfully big of you. You mean like how I get to 'work' with the Police Department when they want to search my house? Hmmmm? Nope, didn't think so.

Still, "This particular search could have been conducted in a manner that fully protected the ability of the prosecutors to obtain the evidence needed to do their job while preserving constitutional principles," she said.

Such as the principle of "I can hit cops because I'm a Congressperson who wasn't wearing their pin" principle; one of my personal favorites.

*As a service to our readship, we hereby provide the Congressional Dictionary's definition of "work" as used in the above-referenced sentence:

The raid on Jefferson's office angered members of Congress, some of whom threatened to retaliate by tinkering (i.e. "work") with the FBI and Justice Department budgets.

Bingley in '09!

*

(h/t to Insta)
*ths/campaign strategist edit

Posted by Mr. Bingley at July 11, 2006 07:39 AM