Hastert Balks At Jefferson Office Search
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON – The House speaker, Dennis Hastert, complained directly to President Bush yesterday about the FBI’s unprecedented raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s office, while officials said senior Democrats worked to ease the Louisiana lawmaker out of a powerful committee assignment, at least temporarily.
“My opinion is that they took the wrong path,” Mr. Hastert, a Republican of Illinois, told reporters after meeting with Mr. Bush in the White House. “They need to back up, and we need to go from there.”
White House officials said they didn’t learn of the search of Mr. Jefferson’s office on Saturday night and Sunday until after it happened. They pledged to work with the Justice Department to soothe lawmakers’ anger.
