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WASHINGTON

Under a connate anticipation known as the “speech-or-debate clause,” lawmakers have ample protections that cover their work on Capitol Hill. That means legislation, floor speeches and wiretaps that capture information of the same nature to votes and strategy are often out of bounds in developing a tending to crime case.

The latest lawmaker to seize on the controversial legal argument is Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., who is citing the wiretaps of his Verizon Wireless BlackBerry in calamitous to persuade a quadrangle to throw out charges of fraud, exorbitant charge and conspiracy against him.

For four weeks surrounding the 2006 midterm elections, FBI agents privately listened as Renzi and companion House members traded phone calls to babbler about congressional leadership races and fret transversely the future of the Republican Party. The conversations too revealed intrigue and favor-trading amid House members and aides.

Renzi received a boost last week whenever the House supremacy, Republicans and Democrats, asked the judge in his case for permission to file a friend-of-the-court brief in back of at least some of Renzi’s arguments.

With 3,500 open cases across state, local and federal government, FBI Director Robert Mueller has called targeting corrupt officials the bureau’s “top criminal priority.”

Constitutional pull hard of war

Critics said members of Congress suspected of using their offices for personal increase are using the law as a ward off.

“It’s the biggest issue in federal corruption prosecutions,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a former federal prosecutor. “If courts be steadfast to expand the breadth of the clause, we are likely to see more bribery and other illegal conduct by legislators go unpunished.”

Recent examples of the constitutional tug of the last argument of kings abound:


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