Top Officials at Department of Justice Threaten to Resign over Jefferson Raid
Posted on | May 27, 2006
In the latest developments of the Rep. William Jefferson raid drama, several senior members of the US Department of Justice are prepared to resign if George W Bush orders them to return the materials seized in an FBI raid on Jefferson’s office. Among those who are prepared to leave are Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. In the wake of this, Bush’s decision to seal the evidence and relocate it to the Solicitor General’s office makes much more sense. Bush is pretty much off the hook because he did not know about the raid until after the FBI had begun to execute it.
I am both very angry and disappointed with Democrats on this one. Ever since things like Jack Abramoff came to light Democrats have been preaching about the "culture of corruption" that has permeated Washington, DC, under the solid twelve years of Republican majority in Congress and six years of a Republican Whitehouse. The Democratic National Committee even has a section of its website detailing this in The Corruption Files. With Jefferson, who will certainly face indictment over this, the Democrats had a chance to show the nation that they were different. With evidence as damning as the FBI had prior to the raid, you would expect Democrats to be lining up to demand Jefferson immediately resign from the house Ways & Means Committee, one of the most powerful ones, if not resign from Congress completely. Democrats could have shown the nation how they handle the bad apples in their party.
Along side my anger and disappointment of Democrats is astonishment at the response of Republican leaders. I would have expected House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to be openly laughing about this incident and using it to try and throw the "culture of corruption" talk back into the face of Democrats. Instead, worrying that their offices would be next, they attacked the Department of Justice and the FBI for executing a legal raid. Now members in both houses of Congress want some sort of procedure in place for any future raids. Excuse me? The FBI has been conducting an investigation of Jefferson for at least a year or so, delivered a subpoena to him for the materials they seized in the raid which was reported to the House of Representatives on September 15th, 2005, and finally obtained a judicial search warrant after Jefferson refused to comply with the subpoena for 247 days. I would say procedure was more than followed. Even more to the point, what was Jefferson doing during those 247 days? He had ample time to consult with lawyers attached to the House of Representatives, consult with members of the party and attorneys that they probably have available, or sought a private attorney to look into the subpoena.
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