posted on December 5, 2005 04:06:12 PM new
Thought the money laundering charges were upheld.
I can see Earle biting the bullet over the fact the his main charge has been dismissed.
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AUSTIN, Texas - A judge dismissed the conspiracy charges Monday against Rep. Tom DeLay but refused to throw out the money-laundering counts, dashing the Texas congressman's hopes for now of reclaiming his post as House majority leader. Judge Pat Priest, who is presiding over the case against the Republican, issued the ruling after a hearing late last month in which DeLay's attorney argued that the indictment was fatally flawed.
When he was indicted in September, DeLay was required under House rules to relinquish the leadership post he had held since early 2003. While Monday's ruling was a partial victory for DeLay, he cannot reclaim his post because he remains under indictment.
"The court's decision to dismiss Ronnie Earle's numerous charges against Mr. DeLay underscores just how baseless and politically motivated the charges were," DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden said, referring to the Democratic district attorney who brought the case.
"Mr. DeLay is very encouraged by the swift progress of the legal proceedings and looks forward to his eventual and absolute exoneration based on the facts and the law."
DeLay and two Republican fundraisers, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, are accused of illegally funneling $190,000 in corporate donations to 2002 Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature. Under Texas law, corporate money cannot be directly used for political campaigns, but it can be used for administrative purposes.
In asking that the case be thrown out, DeLay lawyer Dick DeGuerin argued that one of the charges _ conspiracy to violate the Texas election code _ did not even take effect until September 2003, a year after the alleged offenses occurred.
Prosecutors, however, said the crime of conspiracy was already on the books, and could be applied to the election code even though such uses were not explicitly in state law at the time.
The judge was unpersuaded by that argument, and dismissed the conspiracy charge.
"Dear Lord, if you can't make me a better man, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am.".
Texas Judge Lets Stand 2 of 3 Charges Against DeLay
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and CARL HULSE
Published: December 6, 2005
HOUSTON, Dec. 5 - A Texas judge dismissed one charge against Representative Tom Delay on Monday but let stand two more serious charges, complicating Mr. DeLay's hopes of regaining his post as House majority leader when Congress resumes in January.
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Michael Stravato for The New York Times
The judge, Pat Priest of San Antonio, handed Mr. DeLay and two co-defendants a partial victory in dismissing charges of conspiracy to violate the election code by making an illegal corporate contribution.
Judge Priest left standing charges of money laundering and conspiracy to launder money against all three.
The decision moves Mr. DeLay and his co-defendants, the Republican fund-raisers John D. Colyandro and James W. Ellis, a big step closer to facing trial - perhaps as soon as January - on felony charges that carry long prison terms and fines.
The charges involve $190,000 that the state says was collected from corporate donors in 2002 and, in violation of Texas election and money laundering laws, routed through Republican political action committees to seven Republicans running for the Texas House.
The judge ruled that the conspiracy provisions of the state election code did not take effect until a year after the charged violations. But he rejected defense challenges to the money laundering charges and ruled that they could go to trial.
The political stakes were underscored with the arrival in Houston on Monday afternoon of Vice President Dick Cheney, who appeared with Mr. DeLay at a previously scheduled political fund-raiser. The event was closed to reporters. Several hundred protesters jeered outside the fund-raiser, held at the Westin Oaks in the Galleria shopping mall.
After the judge's decision, which came just as about 400 guests were arriving for the function, at $500 and up per ticket, Mr. DeLay's office in Washington released a statement that sought to put a positive spin on the ruling and again attacked the Austin prosecutor who brought the charges, the Travis County district attorney, Ronnie Earle.
"The court's decision to dismiss a portion of Ronnie Earle's manufactured and flawed case against Mr. DeLay underscores just how baseless and politically motivated the charges were," the statement said.
Along with Mr. DeLay's earlier success in disqualifying a previous judge accused of Democratic political partisanship, the statement said that the ruling "represents yet another legal victory" and that Mr. DeLay was "encouraged by the swift progress of the legal proceedings" and looked forward to his eventual exoneration.
Mr. Earle declined to comment on the ruling, saying it was under study. The state has 15 days to appeal for reinstatement of the dismissed charges. Mr. DeLay cannot appeal until after a trial, Judge Priest said.
A defense lawyer involved in the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern of antagonizing the judge, conceded that the ruling could be read as a substantial victory for the prosecution.
But Dick DeGuerin, Mr. DeLay's chief lawyer, said, "We won more than they did," contending that the remaining charges would be "impossible to prove."
If all the charges had been dismissed, Mr. DeLay, 58, who has represented his district around the Houston suburb of Sugar Land since 1985, would have had a clear path to return immediately to his leadership post in Congress. The split decision eliminated that possibility and significantly complicated his effort to retain a leadership role.
"There are likely to be leadership elections in January," said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona.
Other Republicans, who would not speak for the record about internal party matters, said they also believed it was virtually a foregone conclusion that Republicans would consider installing at least a new majority leader early next year. They said the party needed to instill some stability in the leadership team heading into what is expected to be a politically difficult election year.
Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican whip, is serving temporarily in both his job and the majority leader post that Mr. DeLay resigned after his indictment.
One Republican lawmaker, who has supported Mr. DeLay in the past but is concerned about the political fallout from this case and others involving Republicans, said there was some sense of relief with the decision, since it postponed Mr. DeLay's return to the top.
The lawmaker said he and others were nervous that a separate federal investigation into the activities of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, once a close DeLay ally, could entangle Mr. DeLay and others, further embarrassing lawmakers who last week saw a senior California Republican plead guilty to accepting bribes.
Jennifer Crider, a spokesman for Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, said the judge's ruling showed that the "Republican culture of corruption is alive and well."
"This is not a vindication," Ms. Crider said. "Congressman DeLay still faces very serious criminal charges."
Mr. DeLay and his allies acknowledge that the clock is working against him and that he needs to dispose of the charges quickly. House members return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday and are expected to meet for about two weeks and then are not scheduled to return again until late January. One senior leadership official said Republicans could discuss the leadership situation at a party meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
Mr. Delay's troubles appear to be taking a toll at home. A Gallup poll of his district released on Monday by CNN showed that 49 percent of those surveyed said they were more likely to support a Democratic candidate compared with 36 percent who said they would favor Mr. DeLay should he seek re-election in November. He is already being challenged by a Democrat, Nick Lampson, who lost his seat in a district redrawn in 2003.
Neither Mr. Cheney nor Mr. DeLay made a public appearance or any comments outside the event Monday night. Afterward, briefing reporters, a local Republican, Paul Bettencourt, the Harris County tax assessor, said, "The vice president talked about his long friendship with Mr. DeLay." The fund-raiser was the most successful ever for the congressman, Mr. Bettencourt said, but no figures were released.
Judge Priest's ruling examined conflicting claims about state charges that Mr. DeLay, Mr. Ellis and Mr. Colyandro conspired to collect $190,000 in corporate contributions for delivery to a group they formed called Texans for a Republican Majority. The three are accused of having that group transfer the money to the Republican National Committee and the Republican National State Election Committee, for distribution in the races of specific candidates, illegal under state law.
In his ruling, the judge said he was dismissing the charges of conspiracy to violate the election law because the Texas Legislature had added the conspiracy provisions after the charged offenses occurred.
But he rejected defense arguments that the charges of money laundering conspiracy and actual laundering should be thrown out in part because they involved checks and were not covered as "funds" by the law.
Judge Priest also said he had yet to rule on a defense motion of prosecutorial misconduct.
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