Posted on 10/27/2006 4:09:07 PM PDT by Libloather
Access to files delays Jefferson probe
Action unlikely before primary
Friday, October 27, 2006
By Bruce Alpert
WASHINGTON -- With unexpected delays in copying records and computer files taken from Rep. William Jefferson's Capitol Hill office, it is unlikely the Justice Department will seek an indictment against the eight-term New Orleans Democrat before the Nov. 7 primary, legal observers say.
The delay may even force the decision past the Dec. 9 runoff that will be held if none of the 12 candidates in the 2nd Congressional District race wins more than 50 percent of the primary vote.
Neither, the Justice Department nor attorneys for Jefferson would comment.
**SNIP**
The issue holding up the case is whether prosecutors should have access to materials seized from Jefferson's Capitol Hill office on May 20 and 21, the first FBI raid of a sitting member of Congress. Experts said that with the final disposition of the documents before the courts, the Justice Department isn't likely to move forward until it either gets access to the material or it is ruled off limits.
**SNIP**
Under a process established by a three-judge federal appeals court panel, Jefferson's attorneys are to be given access to the materials taken from his office on a "rolling basis" of between 1,500 and 1,700 pages at a time. They'll have a chance to specify what material should be kept from prosecutors and then Chief District Court Judge Thomas Hogan will make recommendations to the appeals court on whether he concurs or disagrees.
**SNIP**
"Certainly it helps him if nothing happens before the election," New Orleans pollster Silas Lee said. "It still leaves a question looming over his head. It's a two-part question: Will they indict him before the election and will they ever indict him? Part one has been answered."
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
NOV 7 not a primary, but a secondary and final.
Wahtever became of whatever it was he took out of his house when he diverted National rescuers there?
-PJ
Evidently crime pays.
"NOV 7 not a primary, but a secondary and final."
So, he either runs and loses to a Republican (1 seat pickup), or he runs, wins, and beats the rap (net zero gain), or he runs, wins, is expelled, and another special election is called (toss-up?).
I guess they were too busy conducting hearings with everyone who ever met Mark Foley. Or is that just every Republicans?
They attempted an extra-constitutional trick and lost. Now we lose because the guy's running for Congress again and may well win, and if he does Miss Nancy might be in a position to put him in charge of some part of a Congressional committee that hurts widows, orphans, the middle-class, young children, puppy dogs, ......
Next time the FBI ought to pursue a case through constitutional channels.
There might be some other run-offs as well. In the LA-03 just south of Jefferson's district, socially conservative Democrat Charlie Melancon is running for reelection against a solid conservative Republican in Craig Romero, and there are also a black liberal Democrat and a Libertarian running, so Melancon may be held below 50% in this conservative district that gave President Bush 58% in 2004. And in Texas, Republican Henry Bonilla's 23rd CD was redrawn by the courts to make it more heavily Hispanic, and since the line changes happened after the primaries were held they reopened candidacies and it will now be subject to a run-off if no one gets 50%+1 on November 7; I think Bonilla will get an outright majority, but it's possible that he won't and we'll be fighting for the seat in December as well.
The Justice Department is totally corrupt, from top to bottom. It remains filled with Clinton loyalists, Arabists and Mexican loyalists. It is filled with traitors to this nation.
A higher percentage of the systemically-parasitical mobbed-up-unionized feral bureaucracy than even of those who comprise the mass-media, are activist "Democrats" and will always put the fraudulent election of other "Democrats" ahead of anything for which we pay the lazy bastards and the lawyers and other crooks at the post-Cli'ton injustice department provide no exception.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.