In one of the least surprising developments in Texas politics over the past couple of years, a Travis County (Austin area) grand jury on Wednesday charged Houston Congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two political associates — John Colyandro, former executive director of the Texas political action committee that Mr. DeLay helped form, and Jim Ellis, who heads Mr. DeLay’s national political action committee — with criminal conspiracy in an alleged campaign finance scheme that has been under investigation for almost two years. That investigation and Mr. DeLay have been frequent topics on this blog, as posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here reflect. Here is a copy of the indictment.
In a press release and news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. DeLay insisted he was innocent and called Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle a partisan fanatic, which is not a compelling criticism of Mr. Earle. Nevertheless, Mr. Earle has made some imprudent public statements about Mr. DeLay during the investigation. By the way, Fred Graham of Court TV made one of the funniest comments that I’ve heard on television recently when, after hearing Mr. DeLay’s press release and news conference, he observed “if a press release could froth at the mouth, this would be foaming.”
Criminal conspiracy is a state felony punishable by six months to two years in a state jail and a fine of up to $10,000. The indictment forced Mr. DeLay to step down temporarily as House Majority Leader under House Republican rules.
Although a bit skimpy on the allegations relating to specific criminal acts, the indictment accuses Mr. DeLay of a conspiracy to “knowingly make a political contribution” in violation of Texas law outlawing corporate contributions. It alleged that DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee accepted $155,000 from several companies, deposited the money in an account, wrote a $190,000 check to an arm of the Republican National Committee and then provided the committee with the names of Texas State House candidates and the amounts they were supposed to received in donations. Thus, Mr. Earle is apparently contending that the Texas PAC simply used the GOP National Committee organization as a conduit to funnel the illegal corporate contributions to the GOP candidates. The indictment against Mr. DeLay came on the final day of the grand jury’s term and followed earlier indictments of a state political action committee founded by Mr. DeLay and three of his political associates.
The background of this mess harkens back to 1990 or so when the re-energized Republican Party in Texas decided that it could wrest the Texas House away from the Democratic Party. GOP party leaders aimed to take control in the 2000 so that the House, the Senate and the state’s Republican governor could have control of redrawing the state’s congressional district lines when the Legislature met after the 2000 census. After spending an extraordinary amount of money, the GOP fell short in 2000 and the Democratic House speaker refused to go along with the governor and Senate’s effort to reconfigure the state’s district lines so that a half-dozen more congressional seats could be won by Republicans.
That’s when Mr. DeLay went to work. He created a political action committee in Texas that was modeled on his own very successful national PAC. Texans for a Republican Majority was equally successful, raising $1.5 million and electing 15 or so new Republican members to the state House. Thus, the GOP took control of the Texas House for the first time in about 125 years and then, with a GOP Texas House Speaker, Mr. DeLay oversaw the redrawing of the state’s congressional districts that provided the GOP with I believe six new seats in Congress.
However, at the end of the day, this is a very weak indictment. From a strategic standpoint, Mr. Earle doesn’t want to show too much of his hand at this point, but a prosecutor should be required to state with a fair degree of specificity the criminal acts that he contends occurred. Mr. Earle has not done that in regard to Mr. DeLay in the current indictment.
By the way, Mr. DeLay has purchased a first-rate defense team, which includes well-known Houston defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin. You may recall that Mr. DeGuerin recently obtained a rather extraordinary acquittal for a client who had far more difficult problems than Mr. DeLay does.
Finally, Dick DeGuerin — like Mr. Earle, the prosecutor — is a Democrat. So, one of the leading Republicans in the U.S. Congress is going to be prosecuted and defended by Democrats.
Only in Texas. ;^)
Local Houston blogger Charles Kuffner has followed the DeLay case closely, and is a very good informational resource on the background of the investigation.
Update: Professor Bainbridge adroitly sums up his feelings about the DeLay affair with a joke that is as good as Fred Graham’s above comment on the DeLay news conference.
Earle seems at least as power mad as partisan, but there seems no doubt that partisanship has driven him to some extent in this case if we consider his remarks at the Dem fundraiser, and certainly must play some part in explaining the legal fiasco that was his Hutchison prosecution.
So, here’s a question I bet I won’t see addressed on your highly anti-Delay-invested informational resource, but perhaps you will be kind enough to do so: If this weak indictment blows up as badly in court as the Hutchison fiasco, will there be ramifications for Earle?
Obviously, he has a political constituency that loves this stuff (not to mention the Netroots!), so there won’t likely be ramifications there. Might there be others?
Hypothetically asking, of course. 🙂
Kevin, I doubt that there will be any political ramifications for Earle. Frankly, given his comments at the Dem fundraiser, he probably should recuse himself from the prosectution and allow his first assistant to handle it. However, he probably will not.
Earle runs a good D.A.’s office, and you are correct that there is a certain theatre element to these prosecutions that his supporters seem to enjoy. As noted, I’m not impressed by the indictment, which appears to be based on an allegedly illegal funneling of funds. We haven’t heard DeLay’s explanation of why the transactions were handled in that manner, so my sense is that it’s a bit early to conclude that Earle is playing politics here or that DeLay has done anything wrong.
I do know one thing, though. DeGuerin is going to have fun with this one. ;^)
Common sense dictates that Ronnie Earle is acting in a partisan manner. Most prosecutors are so busy that they barely have time to go to the bathroom. Their preciously few hours are devoted to putting murderers, rapists, burglars, and other serious criminally charged defendants behind bars. It is my understanding that even if Tom DeLay is ultimately convicted—-he will merely be slapped on the wrist. No, a serious prosecutor should have too much on their plate to fool around with such trivial nonsense.
David, I agree that the question of whether Earle should have exercised prosecutorial discretion in regard to DeLay is a reasonable one. However, an equally reasonable question is whether a powerful Congressman should be entitled to prosecutorial discretion when many others — including dozens of unjustly accused business executives during the post-Enron era — have not. Given the indictment, I don’t agree with the decision to indict DeLay. However, I will concede that at least its consistent with what has become a dubious governmental policy of criminalizing merely questionable actions of unpopular public figures.
I completely agree. It is obvious that left wing Democrats are using the criminal justice system to destroy their enemies. They hate both politicians like Tom DeLay and members of the capitalist class. Today it is DeLay—tomorrow it might be you or I.
Am I knee jerk supporter of Tom DeLay. Not in the least. Only recently I took him to task for his stupid remarks concerning government spending. Also, this morning?s WSJ editorial rightfully points out that many of DeLay?s associates have personally enriched themselves by throwing his name around in Washington. At the very worst, it seems to me that Delay may be guilty of an offense similar to driving 56 miles in a 55 mile zone. God help us all if this becomes the standard criteria for a criminal indictment. Who will be able to stay out of jail?
David, I agree with most of what you say, except that it is merely the left wing Democrats who are pursuing this agenda. Remember, the Bush Administration’s Justice Department has pursued this agenda much more vigorously than virtually any previous GOP or Democratic administration, including the Clinton Administration.
My sense of what is going on here is that there has been a titanic shift on the national political level — fully embraced by both major political parties — toward utilizing the power of the state to persecute enemies for either political gain or merely punishment. We are in total agreement that the shift is one that is extremely dangerous to justice and the rule of law.
David, In my experience, prosecutors have plenty of time on their hands, and can pretty much pick and choose what cases they want to take. (This line about being really busy is for public consumption only. While they may be good lawyers, they just don’t have the pressure that others do, because all of their failures can be blamed on others.) It seems that this guy likes going after high-profile targets all the time, and with a consistent amount of success against Democrats and Republicans. DeLay, is, of course, welcome to make a selective prosecution defense, but I suspect that he won’t.
While I admire you attempt to support your theory of that “Democrats” are “abusing” the criminal justice system for “political ends” by claiming it is “common sense,” I should note that every party in the criminal justice and civil system can claim that “common sense” justifies their desired result. Every party. From rapists to prosecutors to murderers. It is all common sense. Therefore, without more, your term is non-falsifiable and really not the kind of term that it is acceptable for a lawyer to use.
Kirkendall on Delay
I haven’t been following the Tom Delay indictment story very closely, but Houston-based blawgger Tom Kirkendall has been covering it from the start. His latest post is a thorough roundup and commentary, with links to his prior coverage. Great stuff:…
Friends in Low Places
With apologies to Garth Brooks … HoustonChronicle.com – Supporters bemoan loss of leadership, clout – Houston Chronicle DeLay indicted in fund-raising probe – Galveston Daily News Let’s check in on Tom DeLay’s supporters, shall we? Mike Shelley (Suga…
?your term is non-falsifiable?
I see that somebody has been reading Karl Popper. Still, I can unhesitatingly declare that today?s Texas Democratic Party has nothing in common with the ?yellow dogs? of the not so distant past. It is now comprised mostly of left wing radicals.
Isn’t there a problem with indicting someone for conspiracy to violate a provision of the Election Code? I don’t think the Code was amended until 9/03 to allow for inchoate penal code offenses (like conspiracy) to apply to the Election Code. Any thoughts, or am I missing something?
DeLayathon Day Three
Via TalkLeft, Tom DeLay’s arraignment has been set for October 21. Here’s Jeralyn’s view as a defense attorney: A poster…
Houston’s Kirkendall on DeLay’s indictment: “Weak”
My e-mail account has received a steady stream of links from a number of you about the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas, particularly in response to Norm Pattis’ post about charge-bargaining. One such link is a post
Tom Delay doesn’t stand a chance with the jury rigging, wrongful convicting Ronnie Earle. Two innocent young men are on Texas’ Death Row, prosecuted by Mr Earle. Their case is documented at http://www.texas-justice.com. They are being lynched for the famous Yogurt Shop Murders case.
I am not a partisan Republican. I am a Dennis Kucinich supporting, war protesting Democrat. I am also familiar with the scheme described by Attorney Eric Moebius. His allegations about the Yogurt Shop Murders insurance money laundering scheme are entirely correct.