Stingray: October 2005 Archives

“The case against Tom DeLay quickly devolved into a three-ring circus…”

According to Fox News and the Associated Press, Rep. Tom DeLay will likely be booked in a Texas county jail this Friday despite attempts by his attorneys to bypass the fingerprinting and mug shot process.

DeLay was recently indicted by a Travis County grand jury under the colorful and controversial Travis County District Attorney, Ronnie Earle. DeLay was initially charged with conspiracy to violate the election code and days later was indicted on charges of money laundering in an alleged illegal scheme to funnel corporate money to Republican Texas legislative candidates.

The case has been criticized for its weakness and for how Ronnie Earle has handled himself. According to the Houston Chronicle:

“It’s just hard to believe this (list) is central to their indictment,” said Colyandro attorney Joe Turner. “They’ve had this grand jury investigation for over three years now, and they don’t have a list, and now they’ve come up with a document that they say is similar to the list.”

Travis County prosecutors admitted Friday they lack physical proof of a list of Republican candidates that is at the heart of money-laundering indictments against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and two of his associates.

The list is key to prosecutors being able to prove that corporate money that could not be legally spent on Texas candidates was specifically exchanged at the national level for donations that legally could be spent on Republican candidates for the Texas House.

Indictments against DeLay, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro state that Ellis gave “a document that contained the names of several candidates for the Texas House” to a Republican National Committee official in 2002 in a scheme to swap $190,000 in restricted corporate money for the same amount of money from individuals that could be legally used by Texas candidates.

But prosecutors said Friday in court that they only had a “similar” list and not the one allegedly received by then-RNC Deputy Director Terry Nelson. Late in the day, they released a list of 17 Republican candidates, but only seven are alleged to have received money in the scheme.

…

“Despite the fact that the state cannot conclusively prove that the said document is a duplicate (or copy thereof)” of the document given to Nelson, the “state believes that the document is at least factually related” to the document mentioned in the indictment, Reed said in a court brief filed after the hearing.

The list released by prosecutors contained the names of 17 Republican state House candidates from 2002. Nine of the candidates had dollar amounts listed next to their names totaling $230,000.

Those nine include the seven candidates who received the contested $190,000 in donations from the Republican National State Elections Committee, with the dollar amounts next to their names matching the donations they received.

A lawyer for Colyandro said he was stunned to learn the state does not have a copy of the list given to Nelson. Colyandro was the executive director of TRMPAC.

“It’s just hard to believe this (list) is central to their indictment,” said Colyandro attorney Joe Turner. “They’ve had this grand jury investigation for over three years now, and they don’t have a list, and now they’ve come up with a document that they say is similar to the list.”

News 8 Austin says that the case against DeLay is becoming a “three-ring circus.”

The case against Tom DeLay quickly devolved into a three-ring circus, replete with a mysterious group called the Free Enterprise Fund running attack ads against Ronnie Earle.

The group won’t disclose who’s paying for the ads and is certainly not required to do so. But the whole thing has the smell of secret corporate dollars funding attacks on litigation about the alleged misuse of secret corporate dollars in Texas elections.

Meanwhile, things haven’t gone particularly well for the prosecution.

The first indictment of DeLay alleged a conspiracy to violate the election code by funneling corporate dollars to the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC for other than administrative expenses like rent and utilities.

…

Relying on news accounts, DeLay’s attorney’s then filed a subpoena to compel Earle to answer questions about his dealings with subsequent grand juries and to answer charges of grand jury shopping in the second indictment.

Despite a three-year investigation, Earle then subpoenaed private phone and car records of DeLay and his daughter, who was also one of his fundraisers.

“Last week, prosecutors were unable to produce a key piece of evidence in court cited in the indictments of DeLay associates.”

Then, last week, prosecutors were unable to produce a key piece of evidence in court cited in the indictments of DeLay associates.

Even Earle’s cheerleaders concede that the prosecution looked inept in the last several weeks. It’s certainly nothing new for high priced attorneys to out-lawyer public prosecutors in celebrity trials.

Sometime before Friday, DeLay will have to spend about an hour being fingerprinted and photographed.

Travis County allows some defendants to do a “walkthrough” booking process, in which the defendant is photographed and fingerprinted. But DeLay’s bond amount would be preset so he could immediately pay it and avoid a stay in jail.