The Jefferson/FBI raid/Hastert-Pelosi/Justice Department/Bush thing

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And all this while they're about to vote on the immigration bill in the Senate. The latest deal:

-President Bush stepped into the Justice Department's constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a congressman's office be sealed for 45 days.

The president directed that no one involved in the investigation have access to the documents taken last weekend from the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., and that they remain in the custody of the solicitor general.

And Hastert is so overjoyed by it all:

http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/AP_Photo/2006/05/25/1148530610_9270/410w.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 25 May 2006 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

thank God for longer ties

so much yardage to cover

― kingfish doesn't live here anymore (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 25 May 2006 19:14 (nineteen years ago)

I really haven't been able to follow this. Seems like everybody's hands are dirty, judging by the actions of the bigger players...?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 25 May 2006 21:04 (nineteen years ago)

from my perspective, the only interesting thing to come of this is that hastert is accusing the administration of a coordinated leak implicating him as the target of an fbi investigation. wtf is going on there?!

― my name is john. i reside in chicago. (frankE), Friday, 26 May 2006 00:56 (nineteen years ago)

And to top it all off, gunshots in the Rayburn building!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 May 2006 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

DAMN THAT REPUBLICAN CULTURE OF CORRUPTION, ETC. IT EVEN SNARES DEMOCRATS.

― don weiner (don weiner), Friday, 26 May 2006 15:08 (nineteen years ago)

The bullets were paid off, I tell you!

(If only this gunshot thing involved Hastert trying to take out Jefferson over their secret love triangle with Frist.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 May 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

Increasingly convoluted:

The Justice Department signaled to the White House this week that the nation's top three law enforcement officials would resign or face firing rather than return documents seized from a Democratic congressman's office in a bribery investigation, according to administration sources familiar with the discussions.

The possibility of resignations by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; his deputy, Paul J. McNulty; and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III was communicated to the White House by several Justice officials in tense negotiations over the fate of the materials taken from Rep. William J. Jefferson's office, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 12:50 (nineteen years ago)

Instapundit summed up a particularly plausible read on all this, based on the report I just linked:

Assuming this report (based on anonymous sources) is true, it seems likely that this means the Jefferson investigation goes well beyond the not-entirely-newsworthy phenomenon of a corrupt Louisiana Congressman. Even if the claims of Congressional immunity are bogus -- which they are -- I can't imagine these guys threatening resignation over a run-of-the-mill corruption case. That makes me think that there are a lot of other members of Congress implicated, which perhaps also explains the rather, um, vigorous reaction from Congress.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

Here's a story in Slate which provides historical context:

http://www.slate.com/id/2142462/?nav=ais

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 27 May 2006 13:53 (nineteen years ago)

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