May 26, 2006
Frist and Gonzales Meet to Discuss F.B.I. Search
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Heeding President Bush's order, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist summoned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to his Capitol Hill office Friday to defuse their constitutional confrontation over last weekend's FBI search of a lawmaker's office.
''We've been working hard already and we'll continue to do so pursuant to the president's order,'' Gonzales said on his way into Frist's suite just off the Senate floor.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, meanwhile, said he too is working with the Justice Department to set up guidelines for the FBI to review materials it seized during the raid of the offices of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.
''But that is behind us now,'' Hastert said in USA Today. ''I am confident that in the next 45 days, the lawyers will figure out how to do it right.''
More broadly, the talks were aimed at setting up guidelines for any future searches that might stem from federal investigations, such as the probe centered on convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The developments came after Bush ordered that the materials seized from Jefferson's office be sealed for 45 days, calling a time out in a fight between the legislative and executive branches over constitutional prerogatives.
Bush did not take sides in his order, and his spokesman refused to say which party has the president's sympathies. ''I'm not going to get into where the president falls on the issue,'' White House press secretary Tony Snow said Friday. ''Again the whole purpose here is to get a resolution on it.''
Snow, meantime, meantime, branded as ''false, false, false'' any charges that the Justice Department, led by Gonzales, had tried to intimidate Hastert.
Lawmakers from both parties complained that the weekend search, said to be the first in congressional history, was an abuse of executive powers. So Bush tried on Thursday to calm the tone.
''Our government has not faced such a dilemma in more than two centuries,'' he said in a statement. ''Yet after days of discussions, it is clear these differences will require more time to be worked out.''
Bush granted one of Hastert's demands, directing the FBI to surrender documents and computerized records taken from Jefferson's office.
The president told Solicitor General Paul Clement, who has a separate office in the Justice Department, to take custody of the material.
Bush said no one is above the law and that he continued to support the investigation of Jefferson. The eight-term congressman is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars to facilitate a telephone investment deal in Africa.
''Those who violate the law -- including a member of Congress -- should and will be held to account,'' Bush said. ''This investigation will go forward and justice will be served.''
Meanwhile, a former aide to Jefferson was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the bribery scandal investigation involving the congressman.
Brett Pfeffer, 37, of Herndon, Va., pleaded guilty in January to two bribery-related charges: conspiracy to commit bribery and aiding and abetting bribery of a public official. Jefferson's name did not come up in the hearing in federal court, but other documents have made clear he is that public official.
Specifically, Pfeffer admitted to helping broker deals between Jefferson and a northern Virginia investment executive for whom Pfeffer worked. That executive, who has not been identified in court documents, agreed to pay bribes to Jefferson after Pfeffer said the congressman would require it.
Heads of the battling institutions backed away from the confrontation, for now.
Gonzales said earlier that Bush's move would provide ''time to reach a permanent solution that allows this investigation to continue while accommodating the concerns of certain members of Congress.''
Jefferson said the order was ''a good first step but ultimately, the answer would be to return the documents.''
The pause came five days after the FBI, acting on a search warrant signed a week ago by a federal judge, raided Jefferson's office as part of the bribery investigation.
In an affidavit supporting the search warrant, the FBI said it had videotaped Jefferson last summer taking $100,000 in bribe money and that agents had found $90,000 of that cash stuffed in a freezer in his home.
Jefferson has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.
More than a dozen agents involved in the search took two boxes of paper records and made a copy of everything on Jefferson's personal computer, Jefferson's lawyer said in a legal filing Wednesday demanding the return of the materials.
The only items specifically identified by lawyer Robert Trout as having been taken by the FBI are letters requesting donations to the legal defense fund Jefferson created to defray his legal bills.
The FBI and prosecutors refused to allow lawyers for Jefferson or the House of Representatives to be present for the search, Trout and House officials said.
Re: Constitutional crisis re: search of congressman's office?
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