Judge upholds FBI's search of lawmaker's office

http://today.reuters.com/misc/Printe...-JEFFERSON.xml

Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday upheld the FBI's unprecedented search of the office of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat who is the target of a bribery investigation.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Thomas Hogan also denied a request by Jefferson's lawyers to have the materials seized in the May raid returned.

Hogan rejected the argument by Jefferson's lawyers that the search violated various constitutional protections. It marked the first time U.S. law enforcement agents raided the office of a member of the U.S. Congress.

The search caused on uproar in Congress, where bipartisan leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives expressed outrage that the FBI had seized a computer hard drive and two boxes of papers from Jefferson's office.