Bush Orders Documents Sealed in FBI-Congress Case

[LiberalHeart]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush stepped into the Justice Department's constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a congressman's office be sealed for 45 days.

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4950470

[kysrsoze]

1. WTF is up with that? No one involved in the investigation has access?

Methinks this has more to do with the Delay and Hastert cases than the case in question.

[LiberalHeart]

11. The original post that started this discussion has been greatly expanded.

[katinmn]

2. Huh! So its under lock and key with the solicitor general

http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/aboutosg/paul_d_clementbio.htm
Functions of the Office of the Solicitor General

The major function of the Solicitor General's Office is to supervise and conduct government litigation in the United States Supreme Court. Virtually all such litigation is channeled through the Office of the Solicitor General and is actively conducted by the Office. The United States is involved in about two-thirds of all the cases the U.S. Supreme Court decides on the merits each year.

[rodeodance]

3. a bit more.

The president directed that no one involved in the investigation have access to the documents under seal, and that they remain in the custody of the solicitor general.

Bush's move was described as an attempt to reach a cooling offperiod in a heated confrontation between his administration and leaders of the House and Senate.

Posted by PJS

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[POAS]

30. But the Chimp can read the papers

Quote: " The president directed that no one involved in the investigation have access to the documents under seal"

Of course since the preznit and his brain aren't involved in the investigation they can peek all they want.

[myrna minx]

4. This is a dizzying power grab, or am I missing something?

To Congress...Hey, if you haven;t done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. :rofl: I guess Congress doesn't like their own medicine. How on earth does bu$h think he can get away with this?? Sigh. I guess who's going to stop him. :cry:

[rodeodance]

7. The WH did not want the public display of disagreement that was going

on.

[Golden Raisin]

24. myrna minx wrote: "How on earth does bu$h think

he can get away with this??"
=============
The same way he's gotten away with everything else: arrogance, hubris, disdain for Democracy & our Constitution. Plus he's had a propagandistic media shilling for him 100%, and a Congress and a public which has not raised an uproar and tacitly acquiesced with his every outrage. As just one example, Congress (BOTH sides of the aisle) didn't stand up to his 750 "signing statements" which effectively gelded/negated Congress. Let's see if they bother to stand up against this. As I've said before --- how bad does it have to get? At what point are Congress and the American people going to say, "Enough!" Every day this feels more and more like Germany in the early 1930's.

[Mr.Green93]

5. Just like The Nixon Times

How long until the Saturday Night Massacre?

[heartofthesiskiyou]

6. I think it's pretty clear whats going on here

Question? protecting the intitution or hiding the evidence?

I posted the most likley hypothosis so I'll just point to it in comment #7 here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1282210

snip

Given the fact we are dealing with a party that doesn’t even give a hoot enough to count every vote and in fact engage in at least ten methods to thwart the most basic tenant of democracy such as who actually wins an office, the proposition that Hastert and friends are involved in protecting the institution of congress to say the least is suspect.
snip

[EFerrari]

12. Bingol They tried to finger a Dem and probably came up

with a handful of THEM.

[wicket]

8. Holy shit.

:popcorn:

[chat_noir]

9. more to Kellman's article

"Let me be clear: Investigating and prosecuting crime is a crucial executive responsibility that I take seriously," he said. "Those who violate the law -- including a member of Congress -- should and will be held to account. This investigation will go forward and justice will be served."

The raid, which historians said was the first such search of a congressman's Capitol quarters in the more than two centuries since the first Congress convened, set off loud complaints from both Republicans and Democrats that the executive branch was overstepping its authority.


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/05/25/some_lawmakers_wary_of_fight_over_fbi_raid/

[truthisfreedom]

10. i'm sure rove has ulterior motives, but i believe the overt reason is to

display some sort of "respect" for the separation of powers. i think this backfired on bushco... i think they wanted to really draw attention to the Democratic corruption but it's far too late for that... the public is sick and tired of all corruption in Congress, and this power-grab makes bushco look even more corrupt than before, with screams coming from both sides of the aisle.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. This whole thing stinks of set up

They finally found a DEM they could bust in public and now they are making a big deal about protocal and procedure.

If they get away with it in this case, you can be sure Bush will be pulling this sort of shit a lot in the near future.

[katty]

22. keystone cops mayhem...so desperate

[negativenihil]

14. Gee... this *couldn't* be a distraction from all this enron news...

could it?!

pfft, who am i kidding! our government is run by nothing but top shelf guys! they'd *NEVER* try something like that!

:sarcasm:
:sarcasm:
:sarcasm:

[Up2Late]

15. Here's the Reuters link, not much yet.

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=12338189&src=rss/topNews>

Bush orders Jefferson records sealed 45 days

Thu May 25, 2006 03:16 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday ordered records seized from Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson's office sealed for 45 days in order to work out a dispute over the documents with the U.S. Congress.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

[katinmn]

16. "...a crucial executive responsibility." I can see where this is going.

"Let me be clear: Investigating and prosecuting crime is a crucial executive responsibility that I take seriously,"

[rateyes]

17. When in HELL....

did the administration get all concerned about "separation of powers?" What a bunch of hypocrites! Who is "guarding the guards?" Grassroot Dems and our leaders should scream bloody murder for Jefferson's resignation, and barring that, kick his ass to the curb.

NO COVERUPS! DAMMIT.

[smoogatz]

18. Somebody at WTOL has a sense of humor.

Read this paragraph from their posting of the AP story carefully:

"The raid, which historians said was the first such search of a congressman's Capitol quarters in the more than two centuries since the first Congress convened, set off loud complaints from both Republicans and Democrats that the executive branch was overstepping its authority. House Speaker Dennis Hamster, R-Ill., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a rare joint statement demanding that the FBI return the documents and saying that Jefferson then should cooperate more fully with the investigation."

I swear I didn't change a thing!


http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4950470

[TheLeftyMom]

20. Snort!

If that wasn't an insult to all rodents, it would really be funny!

[rodeodance]

19. AP: Bush orders FBI-Congress documents sealed (more than IP).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060525/ap_on_go_pr_wh/raid_on_congress;_ylt=AtfUm7mPPGDXqs_lduXXxxas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--
Bush orders FBI-Congress documents sealed

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago

.......In a statement, Bush said he recognized that Republican and Democratic leaders in the House had "deeply held views" that the search on Jefferson's Capitol Hill office violated the Constitution's separation of powers principles. But he stopped short of saying he agreed with them.

"Our government has not faced such a dilemma in more than two centuries," the president said. "Yet after days of discussions, it is clear these differences will require more time to be worked out."

The FBI executed a search warrant to raid Jefferson's office Saturday night as part of a bribery investigation against the congressman. Earlier, authorities said they 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 Washington apartment.

Two people have pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson to promote a high tech business venture. Jefferson has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.

[katty]

21. "I'm the Decider" has made his decision-now more intrigue

[martymar64]

23. My Theory

Because the FBI received a warrant for the search, it sounds like a valid seizure. However, I think that the Rethugs are raising a stink about this because, when they are no longer the majority and Dems have subpoena power, they could be subject to the same searches and seizures. This has them scared witless.

My two kopecks.

[Kagemusha]

28. Hastert is acting like the DoJ leaked to ABC about him in retaliation

That's fighting words, the sort of talk that happens before impeachment charges start being filed, so Bush is calming things down some.

[ArmchairMeme]

25. Interesting

Now I can see that * could have used this stratergy in other cases like Delay's and Cunningham's and Savafian's and many others.

What I don't understand is why does the importance of this case exceed those other ones.:sarcasm:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

26. Nixon fires Cox!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/102173-2.htm

[Kagemusha]

27. I think what Bush did here is unseemly, if legal - for the moment

Since this is evidence obtained by warrant, this should have been worked out in a court of law. I expect that it will be. This is just Bush making a show of a unilateral effort to not abuse what Hastert says is ill-gotten goods. Nice, but a completely neutral event in constitutional terms. The whole problem people have is that Bush shouldn't be deciding what happens with congressional records like well, he just did. Valid point. The question is if the stuff has a legitimate law enforcement value. That's for a judge to decide. Bush stuffing the records under his bed for 45 days is just protecting himself from harm if a judge decides the warrant was wrongly issued (which'll put someone in the judiciary in VERY hot water, possibly impeachment).

[Roy]

29. This means there will be 45 more days.......

of Mr Jeferson is guilty and should resign.

Because we have the proof in pictures, but we can't show them because everything is under seal.

[leesa]

31. The King has spoken.