FBI Raid on Lawmaker's Office Is Questioned

The FBI is investigating allegations that Jefferson, acting as a member of Congress, took hundreds of thousand of dollars in bribes to promote high-tech business ventures in Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana. Two people -- Brett Pfeffer and Vernon L. Jackson -- have pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson to promote iGate Inc., a Louisville-based company that was marketing Internet and cable television technology in Africa.

Jefferson and his wife, Andrea, are targets of the investigation, and the government is moving closer to deciding whether to indict, according to those familiar with the probe.

Legal experts were divided on the legality and propriety of the FBI's raid, but many said that it could raise serious evidentiary problems for prosecutors at trial. In scores of cases of alleged congressional wrongdoing, federal prosecutors and FBI agents have most commonly sought to issue subpoenas for documents rather than conducting an impromptu raid on congressional property, experts said.

At issue is the "speech or debate" clause of the Constitution -- language intended to shield lawmakers from intimidation by the executive branch. Historically, courts have interpreted the clause broadly, legal experts said.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), in an e-mail to colleagues with the subject line "on the edge of a constitutional confrontation," called the Saturday night raid "the most blatant violation of the Constitutional Separation of Powers in my lifetime." He urged President Bush to discipline or fire "whoever exhibited this extraordinary violation."

Many legal experts and defense lawyers agreed with Gingrich. Charles Tiefer, a University of Baltimore law professor who served as solicitor and deputy general counsel of the House for 11 years, called the raid "an intimidating tactic that has never before been used against the legislative branch."

"The Framers, who were familiar with King George III's disdain for their colonial legislatures, would turn over in their graves," Tiefer said.

Washington defense lawyer Stanley M. Brand, a former general counsel for the House who has represented numerous lawmakers accused of wrongdoing, also questioned the government's strategy.

"This is really an over-the-top move, and it could create some real blow-back problems for them in the courts," he said.

But Viet D. Dinh, a former assistant attorney general in the Bush administration who is now a Georgetown University law professor, said that "the raid on his offices itself does not define a constitutional issue."

The constitutional privilege for lawmakers does not "expand to insulate everything that goes on in a congressional office, especially if there's allegations of abuse of process or bribery," Dinh said. ". . . The fine line is whether or not it relates to a legislative process or not, not whether they've raided his office."

The legal debate and protests acted as something of a diversion for Jefferson, whose political future becomes more precarious with every new development. He recently drew a Republican opponent, New Orleans lawyer Joseph M. Lavigne, who announced his candidacy in late April, and others are likely to jump in before the Aug. 11 filing deadline.

Jefferson's case also complicates what Democrats had hoped would be one of their more potent election-year arguments: that a culture of corruption instigated by former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and some lawmakers and congressional aides has infected the GOP, and that Democrats would usher in a new era of honest leadership.

"As bad as people want to say the Abramoff situation was, it didn't lead to any House offices getting raided," said Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Jefferson had taken a defiant and assertive stance in recent appearances, but he appeared softer-spoken and more hesitant yesterday. "There's a criminal investigation going on regarding this, and my lawyers have advised me not to discuss, and I will not discuss any of the alleged facts in the case," he said, wringing his hands as he faced the cameras. "That would be extraordinarily foolhardy to avoid their advice."

Jefferson said of his political future: "I expect to run for reelection, but that's a matter that's down the road."

John Maginnis, editor of the Louisiana Political Fax Weekly newsletter, says he is always surprised when politicians get caught in such acts of malfeasance. "It's not a very good reflection on the state to have your congressman accused of taking bribes at the same time Louisianans are trying to get money out of the federal government," Maginnis said, referring to the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Staff writers Allan Lengel and Linton Weeks and research editor Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.