DeLay Found Guilty in Texas Case

[scandal 951]

Tom DeLay Found Guilty in Texas Case

Faces 5 years to LIFE in prison

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/us/politics/25delay.html?src=me

AUSTIN, Tex. — Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful and divisive Republican lawmakers ever to come out of Texas, was convicted Wednesday of money-laundering charges in a state trial, five years after his indictment here forced him to resign as majority leader in the House of Representatives.

After 19 hours of deliberation, a jury of six men and six women decided that Mr. DeLay was guilty of one charge of money laundering and one charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

As the verdict was read, Mr. DeLay, 63, sat stone-faced at the defense table. Then he rose, turned, smiled and hugged his wife and then his weeping daughter in the first row of spectators. He faces between 5 and 99 years in prison, though the judge may choose probation.

A few minutes later, Mr. DeLay said outside the courtroom that he would appeal the decision. He called the prosecution a political vendetta by Democrats in the local district attorney’s office, and revenge for his role in orchestrating the 2003 redrawing of Congressional districts to elect more Republicans.

“This is an abuse of power,” he said. “It’s a miscarriage of justice. I still maintain my innocence. The criminalization of politics undermines our very system.”

The verdict ends the latest chapter in a long legal battle that forced Mr. DeLay to step down. The trial also opened a window on the world of campaign financing, as jurors heard testimony about large contributions flowing to Mr. DeLay from corporations seeking to influence him, and about junkets to luxury resorts where the congressman would rub shoulders with lobbyists in return for donations.

Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat and Travis County district attorney, said the decision to pursue charges had nothing to do with partisan politics.

“This was about holding public officials accountable, that no one is above the law,” she said.

During the three-week trial, the prosecution presented more than 30 witnesses in an effort to prove that Mr. DeLay conspired with two associates in 2002 to circumvent a state law against corporate contributions to political campaigns. Since 1903, Texas law has prohibited corporations from giving money to candidates directly or indirectly.

Mr. DeLay was initially charged with breaking campaign finance law. But prosecutors later switched strategies because it was impossible under the law at the time to accuse someone of conspiring to break campaign finance rules, prosecutors said.

Instead, prosecutors used a novel legal theory never before tried in Texas: They argued that Mr. DeLay and two of his political operatives — John Colyandro and Jim Ellis — had violated the criminal money-laundering law.

They were charged with conspiring to funnel $190,000 in corporate donations to state candidates through the Republican National Committee.

The main facts of the case were never in dispute.

In mid-September 2002, as the election heated up, Mr. DeLay’s state political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, gave a check for $190,000 to the Republican National Committee. The money had been donated earlier in the year by various corporate lobbyists seeking to influence Mr. DeLay, several witnesses said.

On Sept. 13, the check was delivered to the R.N.C. by Mr. Ellis, who was Mr. DeLay’s top political operative in Washington and headed his federal political action committee.

At the same meeting, Mr. Ellis also gave the Republican director of political operations, Terry Nelson, a list of state candidates and an amount to be sent to each. Mr. Nelson testified that Mr. Ellis had told him the request for the swap had come from Mr. DeLay.

In early October, donations were sent from a separate account filled with individual donations to seven Republican candidates in Texas. Six of them won. Republicans seized control of the Legislature for the first time in modern history and in 2003 pushed through a controversial redistricting plan — orchestrated by Mr. DeLay — that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004 and helped him consolidate his power.

Jurors had to wrestle with the questions of what Mr. DeLay knew about the transaction, when he found out and whether he participated in the decision to swap the money.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

It's about time.

[luckytxn 2,265]

And to think this same D.A.'s office only has gone after the GOP in the past and always has let the Socialist get away with anything and they have the balls to say it wasn't politically motivated. DeLay was scum but never deserved to be indicted for this.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

And to think this same D.A.'s office only has gone after the GOP in the past and always has let the Socialist get away with anything and they have the balls to say it wasn't politically motivated. DeLay was scum but never deserved to be indicted for this.

Sorry, but you're completely wrong.

From The Texas Tribune:

Although the Travis County pedigree galls many in the GOP, the unit has actually targeted more Democrats than Republicans with ethics investigations since its earliest incarnation in 1982: According to Earle, over his nearly 30-year tenure in office, he prosecuted 19 elected officials but just five Republicans. Nonetheless, Cathie Adams, the former Republican Party of Texas chairwoman, filed an equal protection lawsuit over the issue in federal court last year. Her argument: Why should the voters of Travis County get to elect an official who has the power to prosecute offenses statewide? A frequently proposed solution — one that state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, put forth unsuccessfully during the 2007 legislative session and state Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, presented last session — would be to put state corruption probes instead under the statewide-elected attorney general.

The Public Integrity Unit came into being under the tenure of Earle, who won national attention for his investigations into Hutchison and DeLay and became the poster child for what Republicans view as the unit's politically motivated prosecutions. Earle started the unit in the early '80s because, he says, "it made no sense to me to see an aggravated robbery case next to a case about a state employee cheating on travel vouchers." At the time, he says, the investigation of government malfeasance was "mostly left to the newspapers" because the Travis County DA spent most of the time fighting street crime.

The reason the unit is in Travis County comes down to a basic principle of criminal law, says Gregg Cox, the assistant district attorney who now leads it: "You have to prosecute an offense in the county where the offense takes place." Since state government largely resides in Travis County, that's where the bulk of the crimes the unit investigates occur.

What's more, says Cox, migrating the function to the AG's office would be unconstitutional. As the state's civil lawyer, the AG can't prosecute any criminal charges. That's because in Texas, the AG's office falls under the executive branch of the government — not the judicial branch, which handles criminal matters, as is the case in other states. The AG's office does have specialized units that investigate offenses like Medicaid fraud and online sex crimes, but in those instances, once the AG has discovered the crimes, the responsibility of prosecuting them falls to the local DA.

http://www.texastrib...eral-officials/

[scandal 951]

And to think this same D.A.'s office only has gone after the GOP in the past and always has let the Socialist get away with anything and they have the balls to say it wasn't politically motivated. DeLay was scum but never deserved to be indicted for this.

Poor persecuted GOP, hounded down by the evil Texas Socialists :whistle:

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Another ** bites the dust, to coin a phrase.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Sorry, but you're completely wrong.

From The Texas Tribune:

http://www.texastrib...eral-officials/

No facts, please. This was clearly a miscarriage of justice - facts be damned.

[TBoneTX 46,293]

I live in DeLay's former district. I never got a comfortable feeling from much that he said or did. On the other side, it takes almost no stretch of imagination to identify Ronnie Earle's motives. He is not highly thought of.

[mawilson 2,133]

Life in prison for something that most Republican-Democrat regimers do every day?

[Pooky 3,844]

So, the offence occurred in 2002 and he's only now been found guilty?

What was the DeLay?

Edited November 25, 2010 by Pooky

[lostinblue 1,989]

Wesley Snipes is going to federal prison for 3 years for failing to file income tax returns Charlie Rangel will be serving ZERO jail time for evading taxes over a much longer period than Wesley Snipes did.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Wesley Snipes is going to federal prison for 3 years for failing to file income tax returns Charlie Rangel will be serving ZERO jail time for evading taxes over a much longer period than Wesley Snipes did.

...and the price of tea in China just went up.

[peejay 327]

I'm sure this conviction will be appealed higher up the judicial food chain and father away from this local jurisdiction.

The opera ain't over 'till the fat lady sings. 'Till then I'm sitting on the fencepost on this one.

Edited November 25, 2010 by peejay

[mawilson 2,133]

...and the price of tea in China just went up.

That's also true - food prices in China are soaring, thanks to our monetary policies.

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

I cannot believe you guys are still going at it after all these years. I have had two children since I was last on. Really it is time to get a life.

Don