AP-DeLay Indictment,0135 URGENT Grand jury indicts DeLay on new money laundering charge By APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A Texas grand jury indicted Rep. Tom DeLay on a new charge of money laundering Monday, less than a week after another grand jury leveled a conspiracy charge that forced DeLay to temporarily step down as House majority leader. Both indictments accuse DeLay and two political associates of conspiring to get around a state ban on corporate campaign contributions by funneling the money through a political action committee to the Republican National Committee in Washington. The RNC then sent back like amounts to distribute to Texas candidates in 2002, the indictment alleges. (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
The more they dig, the more they will find. This guy is the dirtiest of all corrupt people in Washington, DC. Frist will probably be next, and I am sure half members of Congress can be had if they fall out of favor with some powerful interest group or something.
It just hit the AP Wire at the television station I work at. I'm sure it will hit various web sites soon.
If DeLay is found guilty, send his ass to jail. 5-10 years would be fine. If he is acquitted, Ronnie Earle should be fired and never allowed to hold any kind of public office again. Someone will fry for this, either way.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20051003/D8D0QS880.html Grand Jury Indicts DeLay on New Charge Oct 3, 6:17 PM (ET) By APRIL CASTRO AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A Texas grand jury indicted Rep. Tom DeLay on a new charge of money laundering Monday, less than a week after another grand jury leveled a conspiracy charge that forced DeLay to temporarily step down as House majority leader. Both indictments accuse DeLay and two political associates of conspiring to get around a state ban on corporate campaign contributions by funneling the money through a political action committee to the Republican National Committee in Washington. The RNC then sent back like amounts to distribute to Texas candidates in 2002, the indictment alleges. Who is the prosecutor of the new charge?
DeLay indicted on money laundering charge By APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer AUSTIN — A Texas grand jury on Monday indicted U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on a new charge of money laundering. A different grand jury whose six-month term ended last week indicted him on a conspiracy charge, forcing DeLay to temporarily step down as House majority leader. Both indictments accuse DeLay and two political associates of conspiring to get around a state ban on corporate campaign contributions by funneling the money through the DeLay-founded Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee to the Republican National Committee in Washington. The RNC then sent back like amounts to distribute to Texas candidates in 2002, the indictment alleges. The new charge was the first action from a new Travis County grand jury, which started their term Monday. Another grand jury, which ended its term Sept. 28, handed up 41 indictments in the three-year investigation. The new indictment comes hours after DeLay's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case. That motion was based on the argument that the conspiracy charge against DeLay was based on a law that wasn't effective until 2003, the year after the alleged money transfers. "Since the indictment charges no offense, and since you have professed not to be politically motivated in brining this indictment, I request that you immediately agree to dismiss the indictment so that the political consequences can be reversed," attorney Dick DeGuerin wrote in a letter to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. The judge that will preside in DeLay's case is out of the country on vacation and couldn't rule on the motion. Other state district judges declined to rule on the motion in his place, said Colleen Davis, a law clerk to Austin attorney Bill White, also represents DeLay. George Dix, a professor at the University of Texas law school who is an expert in criminal law and procedure, said he doesn't believe changes made to the Texas election code by the 2003 legislature have any effect on the conspiracy charge. The penal code's conspiracy charge allows for the charge if the defendants allegedly conspired to commit any felony, including an election code felony. Just because the election code was "silent" on the penal code provision until 2003, it doesn't mean it wasn't a valid charge before 2003, Dix said. "To me it just says, 'We really mean what we said implicitly before,' " Dix said. http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_DeLay_Indictment.html
Completely agree on DeLay. Unfortunately, I've lived in his district for several years. Don't know about Frist. If they have real dirt on him it could get really ugly for the GOP.
Its amazing how similar it is to the scandals that rocked the Democrats when they controlled Congress... I guess some people never learn...
Most of the GOP faithful only care about fetuses, gays , killing evil doers and tax cuts for the traditional GOP monied class. They get all news from talk radio, the Christian Broadcast Network and Fox, so they will hang with the GOP. They will be distracted by talk about the Liberal Media, Clinton, lying about blowjobs and Whitewater. The Independents though might be enough to run the GOP crowd out of control of all branches of government which allows for the corruption to get so out of hand.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! "sigh" DeLay beats the rap on a technicality? A new piece just out from the Austin American-Statesman provides more details. According to the new article, the original indictment was flawed (a claim pushed by the defense, but contradicted by other published reports: see below). The conspiracy statute in question didn't come into effect until 2003. So the prosecutors, it seems, reindicted DeLay under a different statute, but on the same facts. See the piece for more details. On the contrary, the Houston Chronicle interviews a law prof at UT who says that DeLay's lawyers' contention that the original indictment is flawed is itself bogus ... George Dix, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law who is an expert in criminal law and procedure, said he doesn't believe changes made to the Texas election code by the 2003 legislature have any effect on the conspiracy charge. The penal code's conspiracy charge allows for the charge if the defendants allegedly conspired to commit any felony, including an election code felony. Just because the election code was "silent" on the penal code provision until 2003, it doesn't mean it wasn't a valid charge before 2003, Dix said. "To me it just says, 'We really mean what we said implicitly before,' " Dix said. More soon. -- Josh Marshall http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
DeLay Will Likely Be Booked This Week By Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas -- Rep. Tom DeLay will likely be booked in a Texas county jail this week despite attempts by his attorneys to bypass the fingerprinting and mug shot process. The former House majority leader was forced to step down from the post last month when he was indicted by a Texas grand jury. DeLay initially was charged with conspiracy to violate the election code and days later was indicted on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to launder money in an alleged illegal scheme to funnel corporate money to Republican Texas legislative candidates. DeLay's arraignment is set for Friday before state district Judge Bob Perkins in Travis County, Texas. "Perkins believes that if God was charged with a felony, he would have to go through the booking process, too," said D'Ann Underwood, court coordinator for the judge. Before Friday, DeLay, a Republican from Sugar Land, Texas, will likely spend about an hour being fingerprinted and photographed, she said. He'll also be required to state his attorneys for the record. Travis County allows some defendants to do a "walkthrough" booking process, in which the defendant is photographed and fingerprinted. But DeLay's bond amount would be preset so he could immediately pay it and avoid a stay in jail. DeLay also could waive going before a magistrate to have his rights and charges read to him. At Friday's court appearance, Perkins has the discretion to rule on motions to dismiss the charges, as requested by defense attorneys, but may elect to do so at a later date. The hearing will likely take less than 20 minutes, Underwood said.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051017/D8DA12V00.html DeLay Offered Deal Before Indictment Oct 17, 5:02 PM (ET) By LARRY MARGASAK WASHINGTON (AP) - A Texas prosecutor tried to persuade Rep. Tom DeLay to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and save his job as majority leader but DeLay refused, the congressman's attorney said Monday. Dick DeGuerin described such an effort in a letter to the prosecutor in the case, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. The letter accompanied motions DeGuerin filed in Austin. DeLay has been indicted on conspiracy and money laundering charges in a Texas campaign finance investigation, both felonies. He was obligated to step aside under House Republican rules. "Before the first indictment you tried to coerce a guilty plea from Tom DeLay for a misdemeanor, stating the alternative was indictment for a felony which would require his stepping down as majority leader of the United States House of Representatives," DeGuerin wrote. "He turned you down flat so you had him indicted, in spite of advice from others in your office that Tom DeLay had not committed any crime," the lawyer contended. Earle had no immediate comment. In a series of filings prior to DeLay's first scheduled court appearance Friday, DeGuerin asked for: _A speedy trial, because the indictments "have already had adverse collateral consequences including the temporary loss of Tom DeLay's leadership position in the United States Congress and an unknown effect on the upcoming (March 2006) primary election." _Dismissal of the indictments because, he contended, they failed to allege any act or omission by DeLay and improperly joined two offenses. _Separation of DeLay's case from that of two political associates, because DeLay wants a speedy trial while the associates are pursuing appeals that would delay their cases. --- Associated Press writer Suzanne Gamboa contributed to his article from Austin.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3400587 What was good for Clinton isn't good for conservatives By E.J. DIONNE JR. We are on the verge of an extraordinary moment in American politics. The people running our government are about to face their day — or days — in court. Those who thought investigations were a wonderful thing when Bill Clinton was president are suddenly facing prosecutors, and they don't like it. It seems like a hundred years ago when Clinton's defenders were accusing his opponents of using special prosecutors, lawsuits, criminal charges and, ultimately, impeachment to overturn the will of the voters. Clinton's conservative enemies would have none of this. No, they said over and over, the Clinton mess was not about sex but about "perjury and the obstruction of justice" and "the rule of law." The old conservative talking points are now inoperative. It's especially amusing to see former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay complain about the politicization of justice. The man who spoke of the Clinton impeachment as "a debate about relativism versus absolute truth" now insists that the Democratic prosecutor in Texas who indicted him on alleged campaign finance violations is engaged in a partisan war. That's precisely what Clinton's defenders accused DeLay of championing in the impeachment battle seven years ago. DeLay's supporters say charges that he transferred corporate money illegally to local Texas campaigns should be discounted because "everybody does it" when it comes to playing fast and loose with political cash. That's another defense the champions of impeachment derided in the Clinton imbroglio. The most explosive legal case — if special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald brings charges, and lawyers I've spoken with will be surprised if he doesn't — involves Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove. A lot of evidence has emerged that they leaked information about Valerie Plame, a CIA employee married to Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had the nerve to question aspects of the administration's case for waging war on Saddam Hussein. Even if these administration heavies are not charged with improperly unmasking Plame, they could be in legal jeopardy if they are found to have made false statements to investigators about their role in the Plame affair. This case goes to the heart of how Republicans recaptured power after the Clinton presidency, and have held on to it since. The strategy involved attacking their adversaries without pity. In the Clinton years, the attacks married a legal strategy to a political strategy. Since President Bush took office, many of those who raised their voices in opposition to the president or his policies found themselves under assault, although the president himself maintained a careful distance from the bloodletting. In Wilson's case, the administration suggested that his hiring by the CIA to investigate claims that Saddam was trying to acquire nuclear material was an act of nepotism, courtesy of his wife. But administration figures wanted to wipe their fingerprints off any smoking gun that would link them to the anti-Wilson campaign. Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter who went to jail to protect Libby until she got what she took to be a release from a confidentiality agreement, offered a revealing fact in an account of her saga in Sunday's Times. Before he trashed Wilson to Miller in a July 8, 2003, meeting, Libby asked that his comments not be attributed to a "senior administration official," the standard anonymous reference to, well, senior administration officials. Instead, he wanted his statements attributed to a "former Hill staffer," a reference to Libby's earlier work in Congress. Why would Libby want his comments ascribed to such a vague source? Miller says she told the special prosecutor that she "assumed Mr. Libby did not want the White House to be seen as attacking Mr. Wilson." These cases portray an administration and a movement that can dish it out, but want to evade responsibility for doing so, and can't take it when it is subjected to the same rule book that inconvenienced its predecessors. An editorial in the latest issue of the conservative Weekly Standard is a sign of arguments to come. The editorial complains about the various accusations now being leveled against DeLay, Libby, Rove and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and says that "a comprehensive strategy of criminalization had been implemented to inflict defeat on conservatives who seek to govern as conservatives." I have great respect for my friends at The Weekly Standard so I think they'll understand my surprise and wonder over this new conservative concern for the criminalization of politics. A process that was about "the rule of law" when Democrats were in power is suddenly an outrage now that it's Republicans who are being held accountable.
Court issues warrant for DeLay, sets $10,000 bond By SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press Writer AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas court issued a warrant Wednesday for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to appear for booking, where he is likely to face the fingerprinting and photo mug shot he had hoped to avoid. Bail was initially set at $10,000 as a routine step before his first court appearance on conspiracy and money laundering charges. Travis County court officials said DeLay was ordered to appear at the Fort Bend County jail for booking. The warrant was "a matter of routine and bond will be posted," DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin said. The lawyer declined to say when DeLay would surrender to authorities but said the lawmaker would make his first court appearance Friday morning. The charges against the Texas Republican stem from allegations that a DeLay-founded Texas political committee funneled corporate money into state GOP legislative races through the National Republican Party. Texas law prohibits use of corporate money to elect state candidates. DeLay is charged with conspiracy to violate state election laws and money laundering, felony counts that triggered House Republican rules that forced him to step aside as majority leader. Two separate indictments charge that DeLay and two political associates had the money distributed to state legislative candidates in a roundabout way — sending it from the political action committee in Texas to the Republican National Committee in Washington and finally back to candidates' campaigns. DeLay has denied wrongdoing. The effort had major political consequences, first by helping Republicans take control of the Texas Legislature in the 2002 elections. The Legislature then redrew congressional boundaries according to a DeLay-inspired plan, took command of the state's U.S. House delegation and helped the GOP retain its U.S. House majority. ___ http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/DeLay_Indictment.html
