Holiday on Ice
The FBI affidavit reads like a parody of Washington corruption: A longtime congressman meets an associate at a fancy Washington hotel, talks about a business "arrangement," receives a leather briefcase containing $100,000 cash (in $100 bills, natch), transfers it to his car (a 1990 Lincoln Town Car, to be exact), and drives off. Soon after, the feds raid the congressman's home and find $90,000 in cash--stuffed in food containers in his freezer. Meantime, they have the congressman--Democrat William Jefferson of Louisiana--on videotape, taking the cash. They also have him on audiotape (courtesy of a wire worn by an informant) talking about his oh-so-clever scheme: lobbying on behalf of a Nigerian business enterprise in which he has been promised a large chunk of the take.
You just can't make this stuff up.
But there's more to the Grade B movie: On a recent Saturday night, with all quiet on Capitol Hill, the feds stole into Jefferson's office and searched it, removing documents. They were well aware that this kind of search had never been done before--and were so sensitive to it that they set up a command post during the raid. Sources tell me they had "high ranking" department officials on the phone every step of the way. Just how high up remains to be seen, but Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last week defended the search as a legal last resort. "The reason it has never been done before is because we have been able to reach ... an agreement to receive the evidence that we need to prosecute wrongdoing through a subpoena," and that didn't happen here. Indeed, it did not: Not only was Jefferson served, but so were members of his staff. Let's assume if they had cooperated, there would have been no search.
So why did both House Speaker Dennis Hastert and his Democratic counterpart, Nancy Pelosi, join together to defend Jefferson? Blame it on the Constitution. The sacred doctrine of separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, they say, means they are protected from such searches. Why? Because intrusions from other parts of government could intimidate lawmakers; it's an argument that goes back more than 200 years.
But what if we're not as worried about all the king's men searching a political enemy's office as we are about politicians on the take? Sure, there may be some overeager prosecutors at the Justice Department. But there's also been an awful lot of sleaze on Capitol Hill, and no member should be above the law. Why should the obscure "speech and debate" clause of the Constitution guarantee that a congressional office becomes a no-search zone? Former Solicitor General Ted Olson, a Republican, argues that there is absolutely no reason. "The whole argument is bogus," he tells me. "The Constitution does not protect members from operating illegally out of a congressional office."
Red-handed. That makes perfect sense, unless you're a member of Congress concerned that your office might be the one searched next. Some congressional leaders were so irate, sources tell me, that the White House worried that House Republicans were ready to call for the attorney general's resignation. To cool things down between Congress and the Justice Department, the president stepped in and sealed the documents taken from Jefferson's office for 45 days. The move was described to me as a "cooling-off period" by a top White House adviser. Call it a plea for peace. "We really don't want this to escalate," he says. "The last thing we need is a fight with the House." (Especially since they already have one over immigration reform.)
There is some delicious political irony in all of this: Nobody--not the president, not members of Congress, especially not House Republicans--wants to appear to be defending a man caught red-handed, on tape, taking a big pile of cash. "The outrage by the leadership looks self-serving to the American people," said Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter. Ya think? Let's get this straight: A congressman fails to cooperate with a Justice Department investigation, and we're worried about his rights? Aren't all of our rights violated when potentially corrupt public officials are protected? As one Justice Department official says: "You can't just wall off congressional offices and make them safe havens." If you could, Jefferson might have decided to stash the cash in another freezer--the one at work.
This story appears in the June 5, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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