Frist Supports FBI’s Search of Lawmaker’s Office

WASHINGTON —  In a break with his counterparts in the House, the Senate’s leader said Sunday that the FBI was within its rights to search the office of a congressman under investigation in a bribery case.

“No House member, no senator, nobody in government should be above the law of the land, period,” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said.

The Tennessee Republican was responding to the search conducted May 20 in the office of Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.). FBI agents carted away computer files and other records. They allege that Jefferson accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for helping set up business deals in Africa.

It was the first time that a warrant had been used to search a lawmaker’s office in the history of Congress.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) responded with a rare joint statement, protesting that the FBI had not notified them and that the search had violated the constitutional separation of powers.

Frist said he examined the constitutional provision and talked the issue over with Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales. He concluded that the FBI had acted appropriately.

“I don’t think it abused separation of powers,” Frist said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I think there’s allegations of criminal activity, and the American people need to have the law enforced.”

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which plans a hearing Tuesday on the constitutionality of the search, said the FBI had overstepped its authority. He compared the search of a congressman’s office to a Capitol Police raid of the Oval Office.

“This debate is not over whether Congressman Jefferson is guilty of a criminal offense,” Sensenbrenner said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He cannot use the constitutional immunity of Congress to shield himself from that or any evidence of that. But it is about the ability of the Congress to be able to do its job free of coercion from the executive branch.”

Hastert complained to President Bush and demanded that the FBI return the materials.

Bush struck a compromise Thursday, ordering that the documents be sealed for 45 days until congressional leaders and the Justice Department agree on what to do with them -- a move that Frist said he supported.