Washington, D.C.
FBI agents last week raided the Capitol Hill office of Rep. William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, looking for evidence implicating him in a bribery investigation. Legal experts said it appeared to be the first time such a police action was carried out on congressional grounds. In an affidavit supporting its court request to search Jefferson’s office, the FBI said it had videotaped him accepting $100,000 from an undercover informant, and that agents had recovered $90,000 a few days later, hidden in Jefferson’s freezer at home. Democrats and Republican lawmakers complained that the raid violated the separation of powers doctrine, since it was carried out by an executive branch agency. Jefferson, who has denied any wrongdoing, called the search an “outrageous intrusion.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
‘Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right’ by Laura K. Field and ‘The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare’ by Daniel SwiftFeature An insider’s POV on the GOP and the untold story of Shakespeare’s first theater
-
How to shop smarter with a grocery budgetThe Explainer No more pushing your cart down the aisles on autopilot
-
Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secretsfeature Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, through Feb. 22
