D.A. Tried to Coerce Jurors on Delay

[AnotherRican]

washingtonpost.com
DeLay Lawyers: D.A. Tried to Coerce Jurors
By SUZANNE GAMBOA
The Associated Press
Saturday, October 8, 2005; 7:30 PM

WASHINGTON -- A conspiracy charge against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay should be thrown out because a Texas district attorney tried to "browbeat and coerce" grand jurors into filing criminal charges, the Republican congressman's attorneys say.

DeLay's legal team alleged prosecutorial misconduct in a court filing Friday in Austin, Texas.

DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin said prosecutor Ronnie Earle "and his staff engaged in an extraordinarily irregular and desperate attempt to contrive a viable charge and get a substitute indictment of Tom DeLay before the expiration of the statute of limitations."

"These claims have no merit," Earle responded in a statement. "Because of the laws protecting grand jury secrecy, no other comments can be made. The investigation is continuing."

DeLay was indicted on a conspiracy charge Sept. 28. A second grand jury considered the case after questions were raised about when the law on which the conspiracy charge went into effect, but the panel returned no indictment.

A third grand jury on Monday indicted DeLay on money-laundering charges, which carry five years to life in prison on conviction.

Earle has said he went to the third grand jury after finding new evidence.

DeGuerin alleged that Earle unlawfully participated in the second grand jury's deliberations to seek another indictment.

He said Earle turned to the coercion tactics to get the second grand jury to change its "no-bill" of DeLay so there would be no public record of a rejection.

The indictments against DeLay triggered a House Republican rule that forced him to step aside _ at least temporarily _ from his post as majority leader. DeGuerin said DeLay had to step aside for a crime that did not exist at the time in Texas law.

Both indictments focused on an alleged scheme to move money around to conceal the use of corporate contributions to support Texas Republican candidates. Texas law prohibits use of corporate donations to support or oppose state candidates, allowing the money to go only for administrative expenses.

Two people familiar with the proceedings of the grand jury that declined to indict DeLay told The Associated Press that Earle tried to persuade jurors that the congressman tacitly approved the scheme.

They said the prosecutor became angry when the grand jury decided against an indictment. The people familiar with the proceeding insisted on anonymity because of grand jury secrecy.

DeGuerin also alleges that Earle "unlawfully incited" William Gibson, the foreman of the grand jury that indicted DeLay on conspiracy, to talk publicly to the media to bias the public and sitting grand jurors.

He said Earle discussed ongoing proceedings with some members of that same grand jury to find out whether they would have returned the conspiracy indictment if they knew it "had no basis in law."

Gibson said Friday that Earle did call him, but only advised him on what he could and could not discuss publicly. He said the prosecutor never asked him about the conspiracy indictment.

"He didn't tell us what he was going to do. The only thing his department told me was, 'Mr. Gibson, we are going to present this matter to a new grand jury.'"

DeGuerin alleges Earle told the third grand jury, which indicted DeLay on money-laundering charges, what the initial grand jury said "to persuade them to issue a replacement indictment."

© 2005 The Associated Press

[JaneMas]

The DeLay Indictment

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...092802091.html

Thursday, September 29, 2005; Page A22

YESTERDAY'S indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on charges of conspiring to violate Texas campaign finance laws won't come as a surprise to anyone who's watched the Texas Republican operate over the years. In his drive to consolidate Republican power, Mr. DeLay has consistently pushed, and at times stepped over, ethical boundaries.

He is, as we said last year, an ethical recidivist -- unabashed about using his legislative and political power to reward supporters and punish opponents, and brazen in how he links campaign contributions and political actions. Among the DeLay activities that have drawn disapproval from the House ethics committee: threatening a trade association for daring to hire a Democrat; enlisting federal aviation officials to hunt for Democratic state legislators trying to foil his Texas redistricting plan; and holding a golf fundraiser for energy companies just as the House was to consider energy legislation.

Nonetheless, at least on the evidence presented so far, the indictment of Mr. DeLay by a state prosecutor in Texas gives us pause. The charge concerns the activities of Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), a political action committee created by Mr. DeLay and his aides to orchestrate the GOP's takeover of the Texas legislature in 2002. The issue is whether Mr. DeLay and his political aides illegally used the group to evade the state's ban on corporate contributions to candidates. The indictment alleges that TRMPAC took $155,000 in corporate contributions and then sent a check for $190,000 to the national Republican Party's "soft money" arm. The national committee then wrote $190,000 in checks from its noncorporate accounts to seven Texas candidates. Perhaps most damning, TRMPAC dictated the precise amount and recipients of those donations.

This was an obvious end run around the corporate contribution rule. The more difficult question is whether it was an illegal end run -- or, to be more precise, one so blatantly illegal that it amounts to a criminal felony rather than a civil violation. For Mr. DeLay to be convicted, prosecutors will have to show not only that he took part in the dodge but also that he knew it amounted to a violation of state law -- rather than the kind of clever money-trade that election lawyers engineer all the time.

Mr. DeLay's spokesman said this month that "to his knowledge all activities were properly reviewed and approved by lawyers" for TRMPAC. If so, the criminal law seems like an awfully blunt instrument to wield against Mr. DeLay. If not, we look forward to seeing the evidence. In the meantime, as required by party rules, Mr. DeLay has stepped aside as majority leader. Whatever happens in the criminal case, perhaps this latest controversy will cause his colleagues to rethink whether he is, in fact, the person they really want as their leader.

[JaneMas]

DeLay Indicted in Texas Finance Probe
He Steps Aside as House GOP Leader to Fight Conspiracy Charge in State Elections

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 29, 2005; Page A01

A Texas grand jury indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday on a charge of criminally conspiring with two political associates to inject illegal corporate contributions into 2002 state elections that helped the Republican Party reorder the congressional map in Texas and cement its control of the House in Washington.

The indictment forced DeLay, one of the Republicans' most powerful leaders and fundraisers, to step aside under House rules barring such posts to those accused of criminal conduct. House Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the third-ranking leader, was elected by Republican House members yesterday afternoon to fill the spot temporarily after conservatives threatened a revolt against another candidate considered by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

Although the indictment had been rumored for weeks among top Republicans, based on what several described as a difficult meeting in August between DeLay and the Texas prosecutor behind the case, it shook the GOP political establishment and posed new problems for the party as it heads into the midterm elections next year.

DeLay bitterly denounced the charge as baseless and defiantly called the prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, "an unabashed partisan zealot" engaging in "personal revenge" because DeLay helped elect a Republican majority to the Texas House in 2002. "I have the facts, the law and the truth on my side," DeLay said, reading from a statement, before declining to answer questions.

But the indictment, which comes after three rebukes of DeLay in 2004 by the House ethics committee on unrelated matters, poses a major political problem for the 58-year-old Bush administration loyalist, 11-term congressman, and self-described champion of free enterprise and deregulation. DeLay is also likely to face an inquiry by the ethics committee into a series of foreign trips he took that were initially partly paid for by lobbyists.

The indictment specifically alleges that DeLay, who helped organize the Texas political committee at the heart of the charge, participated in a conspiracy to funnel corporate money into the 2002 state election "with the intent that a felony be committed."

Using corporate funds for state election purposes has long been illegal in Texas, as it is in 17 other states. Earle's probe of the contributions began after 17 Republicans who received the committee's funds were elected, giving the party control of the Texas House for the first time in 130 years. One year later, following a road map that DeLay and his political aides drafted from Washington, the Texas House approved a sweeping reorganization of the state's congressional district map meant to favor Republicans.

Then, in 2004, five more Texas Republicans were elected to Congress, enlarging the Republican majority in the House .

The facts of one of the central transactions at issue in the case have never been in dispute -- the transfer in September 2002 to an arm of the Republican National Committee in Washington of $190,000 in corporate funds collected by the committee in Texas and the subsequent donation by the RNC arm of $190,000 to seven Texas House candidates on Oct. 4, 2002.

Earle has long alleged that this transfer was intended to circumvent the Texas law. A copy of the relevant check from the Texas committee has been in his hands for more than a year, and he has repeatedly said the committee supplied the RNC with a list showing which Texas candidates should eventually be paid the funds.

Some evidence collected in a related civil case has pointed to heavy involvement by DeLay in the operations of the Texas committee. Its start-up was financed by a transfer of corporate funds from his leadership fund. He was a member of the Texas committee's advisory board in 2001 and 2002, participated in its strategizing, appeared at its fundraisers, and signed its solicitations. He also attended dinners with corporate donors that agreed to contribute tens of thousands of dollars to it; his fundraisers recorded the favors that donors sought.............

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...092800270.html

[JaneMas]

Chronology: House Majority Leader Delay

By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; 8:52 AM

Some key events and controversies in the career of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas:

* 1984: Elected to represent the 22nd District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives.

* 1994: Elected majority whip.

* July 1997: DeLay was part of a group that tried, but failed, to oust House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

* October 1998: DeLay attacks the Electronics Industries Alliance for hiring former Democratic Rep. Dave McCurdy as its president and later receives a private rebuke from the House ethics committee.

* November 2002: Elected majority leader without opposition.

* September 2004: Grand jurors in Texas indict three DeLay associates -- Jim Ellis, John Colyandro, and Warren RoBold -- in an investigation of alleged illegal corporate contributions to a political action committee associated with him. The investigation involved the alleged use of corporate funds to aid Republican candidates for the Texas legislature in the 2002 elections.

* September-October 2004: DeLay is admonished by the House ethics committee on three separate issues. The committee chastised DeLay for offering to support the House candidacy of Michigan Republican Rep. Nick Smith's son in return for the lawmaker's vote for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. The panel said DeLay created the appearance of linking political donations to a legislative favor, and that he had improperly sought the Federal Aviation Administration's intervention in a Texas political dispute.

* January 2005: House Republicans reverse a controversial rule passed in November 2004 that would have allowed DeLay to keep his leadership post if he were indicted.

* March 2005: Media reports spur Democrats to question DeLay's relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under federal investigation. Delay has asked the House ethics committee to review allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid some of DeLay's overseas travel expenses. DeLay has denied knowing that the expenses were paid by Abramoff.

* April 2005: House Republicans scrap controversial new ethics committee rules passed earlier in the year that would have made it harder to proceed with an ethics investigation. Democrats charged the rules were meant to protect DeLay.

* September 2005: Ellis and Colyandro are indicted on additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in 2002 legislative races.

[AnotherRican]

Jewish World Review Oct. 6, 2005/ 3 Tishrei 5766

The Duke of Earle
Cal Thomas


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com

In the film "The Blues Brothers," Elwood and Jake claim they are on a "mission from G-d." In a film Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle allowed to be made of his movements and thoughts leading up to the grand jury indictment of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Earle invokes the Bible and its teaching that the love of money is "the root of all evil." Earle says money in politics is "the devil's brew" and he claims his mission is to "turn off the tap."

Earle's sermonizing in the still-unfinished movie was obtained by National Review Online.

DeLay, who says he will be vindicated in court, is being targeted for doing his political job exceedingly well. That job, in part, has been to get more Republicans elected to office and to keep them there. When Democrats did it effectively for four decades, it was considered good politics. When DeLay and the Republicans do it, they are Satan's servants. Earle apparently believes he has been "called" to stop them before they sin again.

After several tries, Earle finally succeeded in persuading a Texas grand jury to indict DeLay on charges he conspired with two GOP operatives to funnel corporate contributions to Republican candidates for the Texas legislature, which state law prohibits. When the indictment was challenged by DeLay's attorney on grounds that the conspiracy law which DeLay is alleged to have violated was enacted one year after the acts in question, Earle went to a different grand jury. It gave him the new indictments, charging DeLay with money laundering and conspiring to launder money. DeLay called Earle's action "prosecutorial abuse."

Democrat leaders jumped on DeLay in ways meant to advertise their own "virtue." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said DeLay represents a "culture of corruption" and hopes a "level of shame would set in on the Republicans."

I'm glad Pelosi has reintroduced the words "corruption" and "shame" to the political vocabulary, for who would know more about those subjects than the Democrats, who shamelessly defended the corruption of the last Democrat president, William Jefferson Clinton.

For those with short memories, the liberal Web page "The Progressive Review" has chronicled them (http://prorev.com/legacy.htm).

The Clinton administration gave the country the only president ever impeached on grounds of personal malfeasance; the highest number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates; the highest number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation; the highest number of witnesses to flee the country; the highest number of witnesses to die suddenly; the first president to be sued for sexual harassment; the first president accused of rape; the first First lady to come under criminal investigation; the largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign contribution case; the first president to establish a legal defense fund; the first president to be held in contempt of court; the greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions; the greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad.

The compilation of the "sins" of the Clinton administration (as Ronnie Earle in his role as Fort Worth "evangelist" might have put it) goes on for eight pages.

Democrats think that by launching their vast left-wing political and media conspiracy against Tom DeLay and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (whose sale of health care stock before its price fell is being looked at by the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors) they will elbow their way back into power.

That strategy occasionally worked for Democrats in the past, but not in a time of war. They'll have to do better than throwing around charges of corruption. Ronnie Earle seems to have a personal and political agenda, not only against Tom DeLay, but against conservatives, be they Republicans or Democrats. He has had mixed results in court.

In defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, DeLay has one of the state's best lawyers. Twelve years ago, DeGuerin lead the legal team that successfully defended Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas Republican, against corruption charges brought by Earle.

[JaneMas]

http://www.crapville.com/video_holder.asp?ID=572

[AnotherRican]

Originally Posted by JaneMas

http://www.crapville.com/video_holder.asp?ID=572

I originally saw that video on America's Funniest Videos, it shows the way lefties have temper tantrums well.