Spotlight on DeLay shifts from Austin to D.C. - . . . hard for Austin prosecutors to pursue DeLay

Spotlight on DeLay shifts from Austin to D.C. Jurisdiction issues make it hard for Austin prosecutors to pursue DeLay

By Laylan Copelin AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, April 02, 2005 In last month's edition, Esquire magazine asked, "Who the hell is Ronnie Earle?" Texas Monthly named the Travis County district attorney the second most powerful Texan. And CBS' "60 Minutes" pitted Earle, a Democrat, against another powerful Texan, U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, in a piece entitled, "The DA and Tom DeLay." That comes with the territory when a prosecutor has been investigating DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority for more than two years. There is no such national fame for John Healey Jr., the Republican district attorney for Fort Bend County, DeLay's home base, even though Healey — not Earle — has jursidiction if DeLay were to be charged with violating election laws three years ago. To make a case against DeLay, Earle would have to look outside the election code, and Healey has little interest in the DeLay flap. "Nobody has brought any matter of wrongdoing about Tom DeLay to me," said Healey, who added that he knows DeLay only casually. "If there was a crime, where the venue is, I don't know." Healey said he has not phoned his Austin counterpart to determine what all the fuss is about. The intensity of interest in DeLay's 2002 election activities drops off markedly from Austin to Sugar Land, just as interest in everything about DeLay is magnified in the nation's capital, where the former bug exterminator is the second most powerful Texan among Washington's elected elite. In recent weeks, DeLay has been trying to rebut questions about his overseas trips, relationships with lobbyists under federal investigation and his role in getting Congress to intervene in the Terri Schiavo controversy. The national scrutiny has shifted to whether the majority leader's activities in Washington will land him in trouble instead of whether Earle somehow might indict DeLay. Last September, a Travis County grand jury indicted three DeLay associates — John Colyandro of Austin and Jim Ellis and Warren Robold, both of the Washington area — in connection with their duties for Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee that spent about $600,000 in corporate money during the 2002 election. State law generally prohibits spending corporate money on campaigns. But Earle always has faced a high hurdle, due to the jurisdictional issues within state law, in trying to indict DeLay. He cannot just accuse him of accepting or giving corporate money as campaign donations as he did Robold and Colyandro. The election code gives the authority to prosecute campaign-related crimes to local prosecutors where the defendant lives, not to Earle's Public Integrity Unit. Earle has jurisdiction only over suspects living in Travis County or outside Texas. To make a case against DeLay, Travis County prosecutors would have to look outside the election code, to the criminal code. They did that when the grand jury indicted Colyandro and Ellis on charges of money laundering. Colyandro, who directed Texans for a Republican Majority from Austin, and Ellis, who was DeLay's Washington-based eyes and ears for the Texas committee, are accused of exchanging $190,000 of corporate money for the same amount of money from individuals that could be legally given to Texas candidates. Under Earle's theory, the Republican National Committee acted as a banker that washed the money. Lawyers for the committee, as well as Colyandro and Ellis, say the transaction was legal and routine. The prosecution of the money-laundering case will be more complex and difficult than just pursuing charges of accepting or making illegal campaign donations. In essence, prosecutors will have to prove two points: that Colyandro and Ellis laundered money and that the cash was illegal corporate campaign donations. Austin lawyer Bill White, a former prosecutor under Earle who represents DeLay, first raised the jurisdictional issue last summer as part of DeLay's efforts to convince the national media that he would not be indicted. White acknowledges the jurisdictional issue is not a free pass for his client. "There are a whole lot of possibilities out there having nothing to do with the election code," he said. White said the money-laundering charges against Ellis and Colyandro are trumped up and DeLay was nowhere near the transactions. "He doesn't play down at this level," White said. "He's way too busy a man. His fingers aren't really in every pie." White insists that DeLay will never be indicted for anything he did in the 2002 elections. "I know that Ronnie Earle, whom I've known for 25 years, if he had evidence against Tom DeLay, he'd indict him," White said. "And he hasn't." Of course, Earle has not cleared DeLay, either. Earle, who declined to comment for this story, routinely refuses to speculate about where his investigation might end. White does not question Earle's motives. "I don't think it's a political prosecution," he said. "He believes in what he's doing." But White also said Earle had to show some results after putting so much effort into investigating the Republicans. "If you spend taxpayer money for two or three years, you have to indict somebody," he said. "You'd look like a fool if you didn't." He noted that the grand jury indicted eight corporations on charges of making illegal donations and Earle has dismissed charges against three of them in return for their cooperation. "He's called them criminals, then he dismissed the charges," White said. "He's left the impression there is something there." Regarding DeLay, White said there is nothing there but that DeLay will remain in the mix until the end for reasons that have nothing to do with the law: "Tom DeLay is the news."

By Laylan Copelin AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, April 02, 2005

In last month's edition, Esquire magazine asked, "Who the hell is Ronnie Earle?" Texas Monthly named the Travis County district attorney the second most powerful Texan. And CBS' "60 Minutes" pitted Earle, a Democrat, against another powerful Texan, U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, in a piece entitled, "The DA and Tom DeLay." That comes with the territory when a prosecutor has been investigating DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority for more than two years.

There is no such national fame for John Healey Jr., the Republican district attorney for Fort Bend County, DeLay's home base, even though Healey — not Earle — has jursidiction if DeLay were to be charged with violating election laws three years ago. To make a case against DeLay, Earle would have to look outside the election code, and Healey has little interest in the DeLay flap. "Nobody has brought any matter of wrongdoing about Tom DeLay to me," said Healey, who added that he knows DeLay only casually. "If there was a crime, where the venue is, I don't know."

Healey said he has not phoned his Austin counterpart to determine what all the fuss is about. The intensity of interest in DeLay's 2002 election activities drops off markedly from Austin to Sugar Land, just as interest in everything about DeLay is magnified in the nation's capital, where the former bug exterminator is the second most powerful Texan among Washington's elected elite.

In recent weeks, DeLay has been trying to rebut questions about his overseas trips, relationships with lobbyists under federal investigation and his role in getting Congress to intervene in the Terri Schiavo controversy. The national scrutiny has shifted to whether the majority leader's activities in Washington will land him in trouble instead of whether Earle somehow might indict DeLay.

Last September, a Travis County grand jury indicted three DeLay associates — John Colyandro of Austin and Jim Ellis and Warren Robold, both of the Washington area — in connection with their duties for Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee that spent about $600,000 in corporate money during the 2002 election. State law generally prohibits spending corporate money on campaigns.

But Earle always has faced a high hurdle, due to the jurisdictional issues within state law, in trying to indict DeLay. He cannot just accuse him of accepting or giving corporate money as campaign donations as he did Robold and Colyandro. The election code gives the authority to prosecute campaign-related crimes to local prosecutors where the defendant lives, not to Earle's Public Integrity Unit. Earle has jurisdiction only over suspects living in Travis County or outside Texas. To make a case against DeLay, Travis County prosecutors would have to look outside the election code, to the criminal code. They did that when the grand jury indicted Colyandro and Ellis on charges of money laundering.

Colyandro, who directed Texans for a Republican Majority from Austin, and Ellis, who was DeLay's Washington-based eyes and ears for the Texas committee, are accused of exchanging $190,000 of corporate money for the same amount of money from individuals that could be legally given to Texas candidates.

Under Earle's theory, the Republican National Committee acted as a banker that washed the money. Lawyers for the committee, as well as Colyandro and Ellis, say the transaction was legal and routine. The prosecution of the money-laundering case will be more complex and difficult than just pursuing charges of accepting or making illegal campaign donations.

In essence, prosecutors will have to prove two points: that Colyandro and Ellis laundered money and that the cash was illegal corporate campaign donations. Austin lawyer Bill White, a former prosecutor under Earle who represents DeLay, first raised the jurisdictional issue last summer as part of DeLay's efforts to convince the national media that he would not be indicted.

White acknowledges the jurisdictional issue is not a free pass for his client. "There are a whole lot of possibilities out there having nothing to do with the election code," he said. White said the money-laundering charges against Ellis and Colyandro are trumped up and DeLay was nowhere near the transactions. "He doesn't play down at this level," White said. "He's way too busy a man. His fingers aren't really in every pie."

White insists that DeLay will never be indicted for anything he did in the 2002 elections. "I know that Ronnie Earle, whom I've known for 25 years, if he had evidence against Tom DeLay, he'd indict him," White said. "And he hasn't."

Of course, Earle has not cleared DeLay, either. Earle, who declined to comment for this story, routinely refuses to speculate about where his investigation might end. White does not question Earle's motives. "I don't think it's a political prosecution," he said. "He believes in what he's doing."

But White also said Earle had to show some results after putting so much effort into investigating the Republicans. "If you spend taxpayer money for two or three years, you have to indict somebody," he said. "You'd look like a fool if you didn't."

He noted that the grand jury indicted eight corporations on charges of making illegal donations and Earle has dismissed charges against three of them in return for their cooperation. "He's called them criminals, then he dismissed the charges," White said. "He's left the impression there is something there."

Regarding DeLay, White said there is nothing there but that DeLay will remain in the mix until the end for reasons that have nothing to do with the law: "Tom DeLay is the news."

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