WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Congressmen reacted with alarm to an unprecedented FBI raid on a colleague's office at the weekend.
The raid on the Rayburn House Office Building office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., has stoked tempers on Capitol Hill -- and led to some lawmakers and legal experts criticizing the Justice Department's actions, CongressDaily reported.
"There is no excuse for the FBI -- for the first time in history -- searching a congressional office and apparently doing so in total (dis)regard of due process as it relates to the legislative branch," former Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., wrote Sunday night in an e-mail to several members and aides, obtained by CongressDaily. Gingrich was particularly critical of what he described as the executive branch trampling constitutional lines of authority.
"The president should respond accordingly and should discipline (probably fire) whoever exhibited this extraordinary violation," he wrote. "The protection of the legislative branch from the executive branch's policing powers is a fundamental principle which goes all the way back to the English Civil War," Gingrich said. He described the incident as "the most blatant violation of the constitutional separation of powers in my lifetime."
Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who served as solicitor and deputy general counsel of the House for 11 years, told CongressDaily that the incident "raises some serious separation of powers questions when extraordinarily harsh and extreme tactics are used on the legislative branch."
During his tenure, Tiefer said the FBI conducted "many successful investigations" of members of Congress without having to resort to raids.
He said the raid could set a chilling precedent. "Congress is frequently at odds with the FBI and the Department of Justice and other investigative or security agents working with them," he said.
