Tom DeLay
On September 28, 2005 a Travis County grand jury indicted U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugarland on one count of conspiracy to violate state election laws. Republican Party rules prohibit their top officers from being under indictment, and DeLay gave up his position as majority leader.
On October 3, 2005, a different grand jury in Travis County re-indicted DeLay for conspiracy and added a count of money laundering. DeLay's lawyers claimed that Ronnie Earle, the Travis County District Attorney, was forced to seek the second indictment because of technical flaws in the first indictment regarding applying conspiracy laws to the state election code.
The controversy stems from DeLay's actions in the 2002 Texas state elections. The Texas Election Code generally prohibits corporate donations to candidates seeking state office. What DeLay and his associates supposedly did was raise corporate money, transfer the money to the Republican Party National Committee, and have the RNC give the money to state candidates.
Some of the candidates became state legislators who helped give the Republican Party in Texas enough of a majority in the state Congress so that they were able to redraw congressional districts to have more Republicans elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
DeLay has responded to the indictments with a strong legal and media counterattack. His lawyers have filed every possible motion to stymie the prosecution, from challenging the indictments to asking that the trial judge in Austin recuse himself because he contributed $200 to Moveon.org, a liberal political action group.
DeLay and his followers have attacked Earle, who is a Democrat, as partisan, while proclaiming the ex-majority leader's innocence. When DeLay was required to turn himself in to the police, he suggested that he would so in Fort Bend, his home county. While the media waited there for him, DeLay surrendered himself in Houston. When photographed for his mug shot, DeLay smiled broadly; many commentators have said that he grinned for the camera so that Democrats could not use the mug shot for negative publicity.
On October 3, 2005, a different grand jury in Travis County re-indicted DeLay for conspiracy and added a count of money laundering. DeLay's lawyers claimed that Ronnie Earle, the Travis County District Attorney, was forced to seek the second indictment because of technical flaws in the first indictment regarding applying conspiracy laws to the state election code.
The controversy stems from DeLay's actions in the 2002 Texas state elections. The Texas Election Code generally prohibits corporate donations to candidates seeking state office. What DeLay and his associates supposedly did was raise corporate money, transfer the money to the Republican Party National Committee, and have the RNC give the money to state candidates.
Some of the candidates became state legislators who helped give the Republican Party in Texas enough of a majority in the state Congress so that they were able to redraw congressional districts to have more Republicans elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
DeLay has responded to the indictments with a strong legal and media counterattack. His lawyers have filed every possible motion to stymie the prosecution, from challenging the indictments to asking that the trial judge in Austin recuse himself because he contributed $200 to Moveon.org, a liberal political action group.
DeLay and his followers have attacked Earle, who is a Democrat, as partisan, while proclaiming the ex-majority leader's innocence. When DeLay was required to turn himself in to the police, he suggested that he would so in Fort Bend, his home county. While the media waited there for him, DeLay surrendered himself in Houston. When photographed for his mug shot, DeLay smiled broadly; many commentators have said that he grinned for the camera so that Democrats could not use the mug shot for negative publicity.
posted by Fred Dahr at 8:01 AM
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