FBI Raid Stirs Anger On Capitol Hill

Search Of Lawmaker's Office Raises Questions; Jefferson Vows Not To Quit

(CBS/AP)  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.