----What most people forget is that old Tailgunner Joe was right.----
What, that Communists were bad? Of course he was right about that. But then, Hitler was also right about that.
-Dan
Posted on 10/14/2005 9:14:31 PM PDT by Colonial Warrior
They don't have list of candidates at the heart of the laundering case, just a 'similar' one
AUSTIN - 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.
A lawyer for Ellis said prosecutors' inability to produce the list mentioned in the indictments is on par with the tactics used by U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the communist witch hunts of the 1950s.
"I'll tell you what I think about this list. In the 1950s, a man named McCarthy claimed to have a list of 200 communists in the State Department, and he didn't," said J.D. Pauerstein, a lawyer for Jim Ellis, the director of DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority. "They (prosecutors) don't know what list they're talking about, even though they specify it in their indictment."
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
From your keyboard to God's ears!
Ah, the old fake but accurate charge.
What, that Communists were bad? Of course he was right about that. But then, Hitler was also right about that.
-Dan
LOL! UnbeLIEVable! Great find.
###Another Article###
>>>In court, prosecutors provided a list but declined to promise it was the same list cited in the conspiracy indictments.<<<<<
~~~~~~~~
Lawyers Spar Over Candidate List
Defense likens DeLay case to McCarthy era, presses for evidence.
By Laylan Copelin,
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, October 15, 2005
A lawyer for one of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's co-defendants likened the prosecution of the Sugar Land Republican and his aides to McCarthyism after the two sides squabbled in court Friday over the existence of a piece of evidence. Lawyers for Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, indicted with DeLay on charges that they conspired to launder corporate money into political donations, complained that prosecutors had not provided the list of candidates' names that Ellis allegedly gave officials at the Republican National Committee.
The three are accused of giving $190,000 in corporate money to the RNC which, two weeks later, gave the same amount in political donations to seven Texas candidates during the 2002 election.
>>>In court, prosecutors provided a list but declined to promise it was the same list cited in the conspiracy indictments. They suggested that the list, which included the names of 17 Texas candidates, might have been a precursor to the final list given to the committee.<<<
Two Austin candidates, Jack Stick and Todd Baxter, received money from the committee, as did Rick Green of Dripping Springs.
>>>Ellis' lawyer, J.D. Pauerstein of San Antonio, said there might never have been a list.<<<
"In the 1950s, a man named (Joe) McCarthy claimed to have a list of 200 communists in the State Department," Pauerstein said. "And he didn't." Pauerstein's rhetoric matched the tone of recent attacks that Republicans and their allies are aiming at Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, including a television commercial comparing Earle to an attack dog.
>>>If prosecutors cannot produce the list, Pauerstein said, it would not invalidate the indictment but undercut the credibility of the prosecutors.<<<
State law prohibits spending corporate money in connection with campaigns but allows a political committee, such as DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority to spend it on administrative expenses. The indictment alleges that DeLay and his co-defendants tried to circumvent that law by sending $190,000 from their political committee to the RNC. The defense argues that no law prohibited DeLay's committee from sending corporate money to an out-of-state organization such as the RNC.
>>>Pauerstein also complained that subpoenas for DeLay and Ellis' phone records, issued Thursday, included the cell phone of Ellis' 17-year-old daughter. "I guess they think Jim's 17-year-old daughter is a money-launderer," Pauerstein said. "This is a prosecution that's run amok. It's time for this to stop." <<<<
State District Judge Bob Perkins took no action on the defense's demands that prosecutors produce the list. He set a hearing for Nov. 8 for arguments over the pretrial issues.
The lawyers for Ellis and Colyandro made it clear Friday that their clients don't want the speedy trial that DeLay is seeking. Ellis and Colyandro want to postpone a trial until the appellate courts hear their constitutional challenge to the corporate ban, which they say is too vague. DeLay, on the other hand, wants a trial this year to keep alive his hope of regaining the U.S. House majority leader position he had to resign when he was indicted.
The lawyers are expected to argue that the co-defendants should be tried separately, a proposition that prosecutors might oppose. "I'm concerned about going to trial here (in Austin) as any Republican connected to Tom DeLay in this Democratic city," said Austin lawyer Joe Turner, who represents Colyandro.
DeLay has said he created Texans for a Republican Majority with Ellis and Colyandro. He also said he knew the committee would raise corporate money but insisted he had little to do with the committee's day-to-day operations. DeLay said the committee sent the $190,000 to Washington because it had surplus funds. Pauerstein, Ellis' attorney, echoed that contention Friday. "We needed to do something" with the money, he said. "The campaigns were winding down. You don't raise political money and just sit on it."
Austin lawyer Cris Feldman, who won a civil ruling against Texans for a Republican Majority earlier this year, disagreed. Feldman cited e-mails from DeLay's fundraiser, Warren Robold, who was still trying to raise donations, including corporate money, even as Election Day approached. "TRMPAC was rasing corporate money hand over fist right up to the election," he said. "The evidence is very clear."
On Brit's show they said Earle doesn't have the real list, but they have somebody who saw it. LOL Is this for real?
Lucy Ramirez anyone?
It would be hilarious if the prosecutors' names were on the list - since it's a refabricated one.
Didn't Brit also say that the list Earle has includes the names of some dead people and some who did not receive money?
Naw! My money's on Lucy Ramirez. It must really suck to be a RAT.
Morning Blogger,
Joe was correct and the commies went to plan 1 in their manifesto playbook(demonize and attack)
Many Americans often forget commies just don't go away. They are teaching in our schools, colleges, and are in both the congress/senate.
Algier Hiss(commie) was instrumental America's involvement with the League of Nations. This later evolved to become the United Nations.(Our Enemies Within Our Midst)
There is always a "Commie" in every wood-pile if left untorched.
7.62 NATO
NSNR-CSAOTL
Morning Blogger,
Joe was correct and the commies went to plan 1 in their manifesto playbook(demonize and attack)
Many Americans often forget commies just don't go away. They are teaching in our schools, colleges, and are in both the congress/senate.
Algier Hiss(commie) was instrumental America's involvement with the League of Nations. This later evolved to become the United Nations.(Our Enemies Within Our Midst)
There is always a "Commie" in every wood-pile if left untorched.
7.62 NATO
NSNR-CSAOTL
So I take it you're not familiar with the Venona Papers?
"In the 1950s, a man named McCarthy claimed to have a list of 200 communists in the State Department, and he didn't," said J.D. Pauerstein, a lawyer for Jim Ellis,...."
Probably had a list of thousands, J.D.!
Nah, pretty much just bidness as usual for old whackjob Ronnie. Local money is that it'll turn out much like the Hutchinson case.
What I haven't been able to figure out, and perhaps it's because I'm wrong on my facts, is why the legislature hasn't stripped Earle of his power. It's my understanding that the Travis county DA has statewide power for this sort of stuff and if that's true why didn't the legislature take care of it as soon as it went republican?
It's not like Earle hasn't been a certified whackjob since day one.
They'll ignore it.
old Tailgunner Joe was right.
He made statements about people without evidence!
Then Dan Rather and Mapes were right cause they got people to say what they thought?
Nothing about McCarthy's tactics can be defended in a democratic Republic!
Earle had the list mentioned in the indictment, but the dog ate it. Or he gave it to Mary Mapes and Dan Rather at the Houston Livestock Show and they'll swear to its authenticity.
How does Texas bring Ronnie Earle to trial? No man is above the law...except the Travis Co. DA.
By the way, it was particularly cheesy for Earle's office to demand the phone records of one of TRIMPAC's directors to his daughter, who was 14 at the time in question and had just lost her mother. How does any self-respecting lawyer work in the Travis Co. DA's office?
That's Lou C. Ramirez.
Taking the Delay case this far had already won Earle and his gloating buddies (e.g., Pelosi, who's seen the press all-but-ignore her "conviction" and FEC fine) the two-fer of all the Dim publicity of the Republican's presumed "air of corruption" (6,350,000 Google hits for the phrase "Republican corruption"), plus tripping the Republican planted pot-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow with Delay's removal as Majority Whip.
This time, sleuthing and events saw the truth come out just a bit too soon for Ronnie, who will surely loose his law license if not spend jail time for these actions.
HF
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