Article relates to post 51425, House Ethics Panel in Gridlock.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/politics/13delay.html March 13, 2005 As DeLay's Woes Mount, So Does Money By PHILIP SHENON and ROBERT PEAR WASHINGTON, March 12 - A legal defense fund established by Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, has dramatically expanded its fund-raising effort in recent months, taking in more than $250,000 since the indictment last fall of two his closest political operatives in Texas, according to Mr. DeLay's latest financial disclosure statements. The list of recent donors includes dozens of Mr. DeLay's House Republican colleagues, including two lawmakers who were placed on the House ethics committee this year, and several of the nation's largest corporations and their executives. Among the corporate donors to the defense fund is Bacardi U.S.A., the Florida-based rum maker, which has also been indicted in the Texas investigation, and Reliant Energy, another major contributor to a Texas political action committee formed by Mr. DeLay that is the focus of the criminal inquiry. Groups seeking an overhaul of Congressional ethics rules have long complained that companies might seek the favor of powerful lawmakers by contributing to their legal defense funds. While the disclosure forms show that the defense fund has raised nearly $1 million since its establishment in 2000 and that Mr. DeLay is continuing to pick up generous donations from House Republicans and corporate executives, the documents also suggest that the majority leader's fund-raising efforts could soon be outpaced by ballooning legal bills. The disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay, whose title as majority leader makes him the second most powerful Republican in the House and whose fund-raising tactics led the House ethics committee to admonish him last year, paid $370,000 in legal fees last year - $260,000 of it in the final three months of the year. The fees were divided among lawyers in Washington and Mr. DeLay's home state of Texas, where he is facing scrutiny by a grand jury in Austin over his role in the creation and management of Texans for a Republican Majority, the political action committee that he helped establish in 2001. The committee has been accused of funneling illegal corporate donations to state Republican candidates in the 2002 elections. The local prosecutor in Austin has refused to rule out criminal charges against Mr. DeLay, who under House rules would be forced to step down from his leadership position if indicted. A grand jury in the case issued indictments last September against James W. Ellis, the director of Mr. DeLay's national political action committee; a major Washington-based fundraiser for Mr. DeLay, Warren M. RoBold; and eight companies that donated to the committee. Mr. Delay could face new legal bills over a swirl of allegations made against him and other House members, Republicans and Democrats, that they accepted foreign trips from lobbyists and registered foreign agents, in violation of House rules. This week, a coalition of government-watchdog groups, including Common Cause, Judicial Watch and Public Citizen, called for an ethics committee investigation into the travel, which included elaborate trips to Britain and South Korea. Brent C. Perry, a Houston lawyer who runs the defense fund, known formally as the Tom DeLay Legal Expense Trust, said in an interview that donations continued to flow in this year, despite recent unflattering publicity for Mr. DeLay as a result of the criminal investigation in Texas and continuing attacks on his fundraising activities from Congressional Democrats and campaign-finance watchdog groups. Mr. Perry said he was convinced the fund would have no trouble raising the money needed to pay Mr. DeLay's legal bills. "There's tremendous support for helping Mr. DeLay pay these bills," he said. "So far we haven't encountered any reluctance." He suggested that the publicity over Mr. DeLay's legal troubles might actually help in raising money. "Certainly, knowing the need exists doesn't hurt," he said. Mr. Perry said that while he had no calculations of Mr. DeLay's legal expenses so far this year, the lawyers' bills for the first three months of the year would be less than for the last quarter of 2004, largely because the House ethics committee ended a major investigation of Mr. DeLay last year. As a result of that inquiry, the committee admonished Mr. DeLay for appearing to link political donations to support for legislation involving the energy industry. A review of the legal defense fund's quarterly disclosure statements dating back to its founding five years ago suggests that Mr. DeLay has been nearly as aggressive raising money to pay his legal bills as he has been as a fund-raiser for Republican candidates for Congress. More than two-thirds of the donations raised in the last quarter of 2004 came from current and former members of Congress, all of them Republicans, and their political action committees. The biggest Congressional donors to Mr. DeLay's defense fund since its creation are: Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the House Republican whip, who has contributed a total of $20,000; Representative Henry Bonilla of Texas, $15,000, and former Representative Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, $15,000. Mr. Tauzin left Congress to become president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main drug company lobby "I proudly support majority leader DeLay's legal effort to defend himself from these politically motivated attacks," said Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, who contributed $5,000 to the fund last year. "The majority leader's conservative values and his effectiveness as a legislator have made him the top target for Democrats' frivolous ethics allegations." Two other House Republican donors, Lamar Smith of Texas, who has given $10,000 to Mr. DeLay, and Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who gave $5,000, were placed on the House ethics committee this year, a move that drew criticism from House Democrats given the possibility that it might investigate the majority leader. A spokesman for Mr. DeLay, Dan Allen, said there was no conflict of interest for the majority leader in accepting donations for his legal fees from large companies or from House colleagues. The contributions, Mr. Allen said, "were an acknowledgement that Congressman DeLay is a fixture within the conservative movement and has been a very effective leader, which makes him an inviting target for liberals and Democrat." The list of corporate donors to the fund includes several large national companies, among them AMR, the parent company of American Airlines; Bell South; Coors Brewing; Exxon Mobil, and Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. Some of the corporate donors have also become entangled in the grand jury investigation in Texas that is focused on Texans for a Republican Majority and the role of Mr. DeLay and several of his political operatives in its management. The disclosure statements show that Bacardi U.S.A., which has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges in Texas, has contributed a total of $3,000 to help pay Mr. DeLay's legal bills. Reliant Energy of Houston, another major contribution, and its subsidiaries have donated a total of $20,000 to the defense fund. Pat Hammond, a Reliant spokeswoman, said the company had recently changed its senior management "and because of that, we can't comment on what might have motivated the previous management to make a contribution." She said, "This team is committed to conducting its business with integrity and putting some of the matters from the past behind us." A spokeswoman for Bacardi did not return phone calls for comment. Documents introduced into evidence in a civil trial in Texas last month showed that Mr. DeLay had a larger role in raising corporate donations for the political action committee than previously known. The documents, subpoenaed from the files of an indicted former fund-raiser for Mr. Delay as a result of a civil lawsuit against the political action committee, suggested that Mr. DeLay or someone in his Washington office had accepted a $25,000 check from Reliant in 2002 that was forwarded to Texans for a Republican Majority, and that he had a direct role in soliciting contributions from other corporations on the committee's behalf. In his most detailed comments to date about the grand jury investigation, Mr. DeLay said at a news conference in Washington this week that he was among the people responsible for the creation of the committee - "it was my idea, or it was our idea" - and that all of the group's fund-raising activities had been carefully reviewed by lawyers. "When you have lawyers advising you every step of the way in writing, it is very hard to make a case stick," he said, describing the earlier indictments in the Texas investigation as "frivolous." ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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