Justice Dept. defends raid

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Tuesday vigorously defended the recent raid of Rep. William Jefferson's Capitol Hill office as part of a bribery investigation, asserting that the Louisiana Democrat attempted to hide documents from FBI agents while they were searching his New Orleans home in August.

The government questioned in a motion filed in U.S. District Court here whether it could have obtained all the materials it had sought in a subpoena if it hadn't launched the surprise raid on Jefferson's office May 20. According to the government filing, an FBI agent caught Jefferson slipping documents into a blue bag in the living room of his New Orleans home during a search.

"It is my belief that when Congressman Jefferson placed documents into the blue bag, he was attempting to conceal documents that were relevant to the investigation," FBI agent Stacey Kent of New Orleans stated in an affidavit that was part of the government's court submission. The document was filed in response to Jefferson's lawsuit demanding that the government return to him documents seized during the raid on his Capitol Hill office.

Robert Trout, Jefferson's attorney, declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the FBI raid spurred new tensions between Congress and the administration, as a key Republican vowed to interrogate top Justice Department officials.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said he wants Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller to appear "up here to tell us how they reached the conclusion" to conduct the raid, which Sensenbrenner called "profoundly disturbing" on constitutional grounds.

"We would certainly consider a request for a hearing if one were to be made," said Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. "We also hope that Congress recognizes it would be inappropriate for a federal official to discuss the specific details of an ongoing criminal investigation in a public hearing."

As part of its response to Jefferson's lawsuit, the government offered to provide a "filter team," made up of an FBI agent and two Justice attorneys outside the investigation, that would allow Jefferson to examine all the seized materials. If Jefferson thought legislative materials were "privileged" and unrelated to the criminal investigation but the government disagreed, a judge would be the final arbiter, under the proposal.

The Justice Department's court filing and Sensenbrenner's comments — made during a hearing in which constitutional scholars criticized the raid — ran counter to recent efforts by President Bush and key lawmakers to quell talk of a constitutional standoff. Bush last week ordered the seized materials to be sealed for 45 days.

But Sensenbrenner and several committee colleagues on Tuesday portrayed the search of Jefferson's office in the Rayburn House Office Building as an unnecessary breach of constitutional protections.

The Constitution says House and Senate members "shall not be questioned ... for any Speech or Debate in either House."

Bruce Fein, one of the constitutional lawyers who testified Tuesday, said, "When it comes to documents, the only way you can search is to read everything. And when you read everything, you encroach on the 'speech or debate' clause."

Jefferson, 59, has been under investigation since March 2005 for allegations that he took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using his congressional influence to promote business ventures in Africa.