Posted on 10/04/2005 3:02:44 AM PDT by Quaker
New Travis County grand jurors, after taking oaths on their first day Monday, indicted U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, on money-laundering and conspiracy charges.
The re-indictment took only hours, compared to the six months that a previous grand jury took to consider allegations that Republicans and their business allies, led by DeLay, tried to circumvent a state ban against corporate money in the 2002 Texas campaigns.
Monday's indictment played into the hands of the former U.S. House majority leader and his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin of Houston, who appeared at a news conference in Sugar Land to portray Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, as the DA who can't shoot straight.
"He is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a 'do-over' since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate," DeLay said in a statement.
Earle declined to comment Monday.
Although the documents describe the charges as a reindictment, it's unclear whether Monday's indictment replaces the previous one — or is in addition to it.
While DeLay kept up his drumbeat on television and radio about partisan prosecution, the biggest effect of the new indictment on the criminal case was to make the case harder for prosecutors to prove. Most of the underlying allegations remain the same, but prosecutors now must prove DeLay conspired to launder money, a first-degree felony that carries a maximum life term. The previous conspiracy charge was a state-jail felony with a two-year maximum.
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
I hear you. Talk about stacking the jury.... prime example here....
I wish we could get a strong Republican to run against earle and send his @$$ packing....
Pity Judge Roy Bean and Bear can't pay the Duke of Earl a visit.
Sounds like Mr. Earle went Grand Jury Shopping. The Grand Jury he started with would not indict for money laundering, so he went out and found another Grand Jury that would, even though they had not looked at the evidence.
The actual charge was scratching his butt while jaywalking. ;-)
Kinda of makes you wonder if the talking points containing the term "Money Laundering" were distributed before the indictment was handed down.
Do you think there could be a conspiracy in Democrat circles? /sarcasm
"This whole fiasco is made even funnier by the fact that a film crew had access to their prior months' work,"
Will the grand jury movie be released as a documentary or a comedy? I have a title for it..."The Court Jester" featuring Ronnie 'Ham Sandwich' Earle.
Travis prosecutors pursued new charge to fix problem with last week's conspiracy count.
The problem with that indictment, according to DeLay's lawyers, was that the conspiracy law did not apply to the election code in 2002. The Texas Legislature changed the law, which went into effect Sept. 1, 2003.As I see it, Delay and his lawyers knew that the first charges were based on ex post facto law. Since Delay removed his waiver of the statute of limitations, any new charges would have been invalid after October 4th. That's why Earle rushed the new charges on October 3rd. In other words, they set a trap for Earle. Otherwise, Delay could have simply waited until Wednesday (October 5) to ask for dismissal of the first indictment.DeLay's lawyers knew about the problem with the indictment but waited until midafternoon Monday to file a brief asking a judge to dismiss it.
There also probably will be a fight over whether the three-year deadline for indicting DeLay has expired. In a letter to Earle, DeGuerin said DeLay is withdrawing his waiver of the statute of limitations to investigate him. Last month DeLay signed that waiver in an attempt to head off an indictment.
The date on the $190,000 check to the committee is Sept. 13, 2002. The committee checks cut to candidates were dated Oct. 4, 2002.
Prosecutors hoped to fix the problem by reindicting DeLay on charges that he conspired to launder corporate money into political donations. In 2002, the conspiracy law applied to money laundering.
Uh-0h. If that's against the law, I'm in big trouble. ;-)
Another indictment to prop up a wobbling house of cards.
The vague indictment was doubtless used to justify the quick "clarified" indictment, meaning that bogus charges were used to trump up more bodus charges, with a new bunch of grand jurors who were doubtlessly told that the previous indictment was grounds for reindictment.
Did that make any sense at all?
Ole Delay is up to his no pork eyeballs in indictments.
The problem with the first indictment was they charged Delay with Conspiracy in 2002 which was not covered under Texas Campaign Finanace until 2003.
Oh you forgot to mention that he also was convicted of spitting on the sidewalk and passing gas in an elevator...both a felony as far as the dems go.
Money-laundering - Probably left his wallet in his pants pocket.
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