It isn't clear whether the bribery prosecution of Rep. William Jefferson will be jeopardized by the FBI's seizure of every document it could find during a raid of his office, in light of a ruling today by the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the search itself was constitutional but that FBI agents crossed the line when they viewed every record in the office without giving Jefferson the chance to argue that some documents involved legislative business. ... "The review of the Congressman's paper files when the search was executed exposed legislative material to the Executive" and violated the Constitution, the court wrote. "The Congressman is entitled to the return of documents that the court determines to be privileged."

The impact of the appellate ruling will be decided by the district court, which will be tasked with deciding whether papers seized from Jefferson's office and which support the charges against him were privileged legislative materials. It seems unlikely that documents evidencing bribery must be kept privileged to protect "the integrity of the legislative process," but that is a question the district court will need to answer.

More ...

The Anchorage Daily News reports that federal agents are searching the home of Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.

Keep on truckin', Sen. Stevens.

Sittin' and starin' out of the hotel window.
Got a tip they're gonna kick the door in again
I'd like to get some sleep before I travel,
But if you got a warrant, I guess you're gonna come in.

Update (TL): The Washington Post has more details.

Former Interior Deputy Secretary J.Steven Griles was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison today for lying to the Senate about his contacts with Jack Abramoff.

The Government recommended a split sentence (5 months in prison, 5 on home detention) but the Judge got angry Griles was still in denial about his crimes so she gave him a straight ten months in jail. Since good time doesn't kick in on sentences of less than 12 months and a day, he'll have to do the whole thing.

The Justice Department's press release is here.

Italia Federici, who also pleaded guilty and is cooperating, will be sentenced in November. It was Federici, with whom Griles had an intimate relationship, who introduced Griles to Abramoff. (DOJ says he also lied about their relationship.)

The total Abramoff-related conviction count is now at 12.

The latest guilty plea in the Jack Abramoff scandal came yesterday, as Italia Federici admitted her tax evasion and obstruction of Congress. TalkLeft discussed Federici's connection to Abramoff and former Deputy Secretary of the Interior Stephen Griles here.

As head of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, Federici, 37, had close ties to senior Interior Department officials, including former Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Founded by Federici and Norton in 1997, CREA is a nonprofit group that touts Republicans' environmental accomplishments and criticizes established environmental groups like the Sierra Club.

According to the plea agreement, Abramoff and his clients donated half a million dollars to CREA.

Federici also admitted to failing to pay $77,243 in taxes she owed on the $233,955 she earned between 2001 and 2003 as head of CREA.

You have to love the name Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. Federici was an advocate for herself, her boyfriend Griles, and Abramoff. The environment, not so much.

Via CREW, Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson has been indicted on corruption charges. The indictment is here.

Two of his associates have pleaded guilty and turned against him.

Among the charges listed in the indictment, said the official, are racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money-laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

....Jefferson is accused of soliciting bribes for himself and his family, and also for bribing a Nigerian official.

Some of TalkLeft's prior coverage is here and here.

The blogosphere has been abuzz today with the report in the L.A. Times that the little known Office of Special Counsel will investigate the U.S. Attorney firings and political activities led by Karl Rove.

Before you get too excited, let's look at who's in charge of the investigation. It's Scott Bloch, a Bush appointee who's been under investigation himself.

Bloch, a Kansas lawyer who served at the Justice Department's Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, was appointed by President Bush three years ago. Since he took the helm in 2004, staffers at the OSC, a small agency of about 100 lawyers and investigators, have accused him of a range of offenses, from having an anti-gay bias to criticizing employees for wearing short skirts and tight pants to work.

David Corn has many more details in his new Nation column.

I was skeptical this morning. Now, I'm wondering why the LA Times reporter omitted this critical information about Bloch. As Corn says,

It is a dizzying situation. The investigator investigating officials who oversee the agency that is investigating the investigator. Forget firewalls. This looks more like a basement flooded with backed-up sewage--with the water rising.

After the FBI searched his home earlier this week, Rep. John Doolittle (in consultaton with House Minority Leader John Boehner) decided to step down from his seat on the House Appropriations Committee. Doolittle expressed his understanding that "recent circumstances may lead some to question [his] tenure on the appropriations committee."

A GOP aide, who asked not to be identified because the issue is sensitive, said that the party's leaders, after losing control of Congress in a campaign that highlighted ethical lapses by Republicans, wanted to show they were responding swiftly to any possible scandal.

Swiftly? The Doolittle scandal has been in the news for more than a year.

Republican Rep. John Doolittle, on the FBI's appearance at his home yesterday with a search warrant authorizing the seizure of records pertaining to his wife's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc.:

"My wife has been cooperating with the FBI and the Justice Department for almost three years and that cooperation is going to continue in the future," Doolittle said. "I support my wife 100 percent and fully expect that the truth will prevail."

Here's a tip: if you're cooperating with the FBI and they show up with a warrant, the cooperation isn't going all that well.

The search occurred the same day that Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle aide who went on to work for Abramoff, abruptly resigned his law firm job without explanation.

TalkLeft noted the Doolittle/Abramoff connection in this 2005 post.

Bumped. -BTD See also barb

Reuters via CNN.com reported last night that the e-mails Congress seeks that were sent on the GOP system to avoid the government e-mail system, and, therefore, accountability, were deleted or otherwise lost.

Some White House staff wrote e-mail messages about official business on Republican Party accounts, and some may have been wrongly deleted, the administration said Wednesday in a disclosure tied to the inquiry into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

The White House said it could not rule out the possibility that some official e-mails relating to the firings had been deleted and are lost.

On March 23, Stephen Griles, former Deputy Secretary of the Interior during Gale Norton's tenure, pleaded guilty to providing misleading information to Senate investigators about his relationship with Jack Abramoff.

Now, Italia Federici, Griles former girlfriend who "co-founded CREA, a conservative-leaning environmental-advocacy group, in 1997 with Gale Norton, who became secretary of the Interior Department in 2001" has received a target letter.
CREA stands for Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy,

“The investigation is focused on the allegedly illegal manner in which you operated the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy,” wrote Stephanie Evans, a trial attorney in the department’s Tax Division.

Griles acknowledged at the time of his plea,

... that because of his romantic relationship with Federici, he “gave Abramoff more credibility as a lobbyist” and “distinguished him from other lobbyists.”

Federici is under investigation for potentially violating five statutes:

More...

A common word appeared yesterday on MSNBC's website about "Meet the Press" and in the NY Times in their stories posted two minutes apart: Mr. Gonzales's GOP support "Erodes." Today's NY Times article's heading uses a softer word: Republican Senators Express Reservations Over Gonzales.

Prior to this Democrat controlled Congress being sworn in, the GOP would never have asked the questions necessary to have made this an issue. They didn't dare to.  But, consider the timing: the rank political firing and then the cover up of its motives and people behind it all occurred after the election. The machinations were all before, but the axes fell after.

So why the GOP interest, now?

Even as Jack Abramoff hopes to be rewarded for helping the government prosecute his cohorts, the Justice Department announced that Steven Griles, the former Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department, will plead guilty to a single count of obstructing justice in connection with the Abramoff investigation.

The former No. 2 official at the Interior Department has agreed to a felony plea admitting that he lied five times to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and its investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, people involved in the case told the AP. Griles will admit in federal court Friday that he concealed that he had a unique relationship with Abramoff, people involved in the case said on condition of anonymity, because a federal judge had not yet approved the plea deal.

The government will ask for no more than the minimum guideline sentence of 10 months, half of which can be served at home. This seems a sweet deal for Griles, considering that prosecutors are dropping allegations that Griles used his position to help Abramoff

Prosecutors in January had outlined other possible charges against Griles. They included "honest services" fraud, based on his meetings with Abramoff; lying to Congress about information favorable to Abramoff that Griles had passed on to other Interior officials; and lying to Congress and criminal conflict of interest over a job that Abramoff had offered to Griles.