FBI Raid Stirs Anger On Capitol Hill

House Speaker Dennis Hastert complained directly to President Bush about the FBI's unprecedented raid on Rep. William Jefferson's office on Tuesday, while officials said senior Democrats worked to ease the Louisiana lawmaker out of a powerful committee assignment, at least temporarily.

"Obviously we are taking note of Speaker Hastert's statements," said White House press secretary Tony Snow after the Illinois Republican spoke with Bush at the White House.

CBS News has learned that FBI officials considered Saturday night's raid of Jefferson's office so sensitive that they activated a special command center to monitor the unprecedented search.

CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports that operation was the latest step in an investigation that's been underway since last year, and which plays out like a parody of Washington corruption:

Federal investigators now allege that last July, the Louisiana congressman removed "a leather briefcase" from a car trunk, containing "$100,000 cash in $100 bills." He stuffed it "inside the passenger compartment of his 1990 Lincoln Town Car and drove off." Hidden cameras taped it all.

Shortly thereafter, agents found $90,000 in the freezer of Jefferson's Washington home, stuffed in frozen food containers.

The congressman insists he can explain everything.

"There are two sides two sides to every story, there's certainly two sides to this story," Jefferson said Monday. "There'll be an appropriate time and forum when that can be explained and explicated."

According to an FBI affidavit, an informant was wired as Jefferson demanded bribes in exchange for promoting a high-tech business in Nigeria, even passing notes at a dinner to try and up his take.

"All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching," Jefferson said.

The FBI was watching. But now even top Republicans are concerned that the FBI overreached when it searched Jefferson's office.

"Nothing I have learned in the last 48 hours leads me to believe that there was any necessity to change the precedent established over those 219 years," Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said in a statement Monday.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said congressional independence from the executive branch protects Americans from abuses of power.

"Justice Department investigations must be conducted in accordance with Constitutional protections and historical precedent," she said.

Jefferson told reporters that he would not resign.

"I plan to go to the floor to vote tonight. I plan to go to the floor to vote tomorrow," he said. "I plan to carry out my responsibilities here, as I have since the time that I've been here."

He declined to talk about allegations that he was videotaped accepting money from a Virginia businesswoman who is cooperating with investigators. She was identified as Lori Mody by a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the woman's name was kept secret in court documents.

Jefferson called the weekend search of his office an "outrageous intrusion."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, asked about the search, said he understands the concerns raised about FBI agents raiding a congressional office.

"I will admit that these were unusual steps that were taken in response to an unusual set of circumstances," Gonzales said.

The search warrant affidavit spells out special procedures put in place to ensure the search did not infringe on privileged material. The procedures include use of a "filter team" of prosecutors and FBI agents unconnected to the investigation. They would review any seized items or documents and determine whether the documents are privileged and therefore immune from the search warrant.

If the status of a document is in doubt, the filter team will give the documents to a judge for a definitive ruling before giving them to case prosecutors, according to the affidavit.

Hastert said those protections may not be enough.

"It is not at all clear to me that it would even be possible to create special procedures that would overcome the Constitutional problems that the execution of this warrant has created," he said.

Jefferson has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing, but two of his associates have pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges in federal court in Alexandria, Va.

The House Ethics Committee has opened an inquiry into the case.