Ex-House Leader DeLay Found Guilty in Texas Case By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. Published: November 24, 2010 Twitter comments (8)
E-Mail Send To Phone Print Single Page Reprints Share Close LinkedinDiggMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink AUSTIN – Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful and divisive Republican lawmakers to ever come out of Texas, was convicted Monday 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. Enlarge This Image Ben Sklar/Getty Images Tom DeLay, left, at his corruption trial in October in Austin. Blogs The Caucus The latest on President Obama, the new Congress and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. FiveThirtyEight: Nate Silver's Political Calculus More Politics News Readers' Comments Share your thoughts. Post a Comment » Read All Comments (8) » 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, who is 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 five and 99 years in prison, though the judge may choose probation. A few minutes later, Mr. Delay said outside the door of 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 in Washington, as jurors heard testimony about large contributions flowing to Mr. DeLay from corporations seeking to influence him, and about junkets to posh 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 partisans 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 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 Mr. DeLay and two of 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 September 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 G.O.P. 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. Another central issue facing the panel was whether the corporate contributions could be considered illicit. To be guilty of money-laundering, the prosecution had to show the money had been obtained through an illegal activity before it was laundered. Blogs The Caucus The latest on President Obama, the new Congress and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. FiveThirtyEight: Nate Silver's Political Calculus More Politics News The jury consisted of a Republican, six Democrats, two independent conservatives and three independent liberals. Prosecutors presented a mountain of circumstantial evidence – emails, telephone records, calendars, brochures and other documents – trying to persuade jurors that Mr. DeLay played a leading role in the plan and intended to break the Texas election law from the moment his political operatives solicited the donations. The prosecutor, Gary Cobb, said the prosecution had a tough job in demonstrating Mr. DeLay was responsible for the actions of his political associates, Mr. Ellis and Mr. Colyandro, who did not testify and still await trial on lesser charges. None of the other witnesses testified directly about Mr. DeLay’s control over the decision, and the prosecution instead relied on an interviews Mr. DeLay had given to prosecutors and journalists. “It was almost entirely circumstantial and there were a lot of people with motives not to have Tom Delay convicted,” Mr. Cobb said. During the last day of deliberations, the jurors asked for transcripts of Mr. DeLay’s interview with prosecutors in 2005, in which he said he knew about the swap in advance. “Jim Ellis told me he was going to do it before he did it,” Mr. DeLay said in the interview. But the lead defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, maintained the money swap was legal because the Republican National Committee kept a firewall between accounts holding corporate and individual contributions. “It’s not the same money,” was his mantra during the trial. He also presented evidence to distance Mr. DeLay from the actions of his political operatives, arguing that while Mr. Ellis told Mr. DeLay about the transaction, Mr. DeLay never gave his approval. Judge Pat Priest has wide discretion in sentencing the former majority leader, who was known as “The Hammer” for his no-holds-barred style during 20 years in the House of Representatives. Mr. Delay could be sentenced from 2 years to 20 years in prison for the conspiracy count, and from 5 years to 99 years, or life in prison, for the money-laundering count. Mr. DeGuerin said Mr. DeLay would try to convince an appeals court the money-laundering statute should never had been applied to the money swap — because the original donations were legal and also because the donations to the state candidates came out of a different account than the one in which the corporate donations were deposited. “It will never stand,” Mr. DeGuerin said. More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/us/politics/25delay.html?pagewanted=2&partner=rss&emc=rss -- Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time. Have a great day, Tommy -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. 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