Posted on 11/23/2010 11:24:58 AM PST by a fool in paradise
Five years after former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay demanded a speedy trial on political money laundering charges, a Travis County jury is now determining his fate.
The six-man, six-woman panel showed up at court Monday with a majority of the members dressed in black. They elected one of the women as foreman. And when they returned three times to the courtroom to ask the judge questions during their four hours of deliberation, they all looked away from DeLay.
The jurors also were asking visiting Judge Pat Priest questions that indicated they were buying into DeLay's defense that no money laundering occurred in the case because corporate money was initially raised legally before being swapped for candidate eligible money raised from individual donors.
"I feel pretty good," DeLay said after Priest sent the jury home for the day. "The closing arguments by the prosecution showed there's no crime, no evidence. Their presentation was politics."
...The indictment forced DeLay to give up his House leadership position in 2005. After he failed to obtain a speedy trial, DeLay resigned his Sugar Land congressional seat in 2006.
The core argument between Travis County prosecutors and defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin in closing statements to the jury Monday revolved around whether money laundering occurred if TRMPAC originally raised the corporate money legally.
DeGuerin told jurors that the corporate money was legally raised and transferred to the RNC and legal candidate money came back from the RNC.
"No crime was committed because no corporate money went to candidates in Texas," DeGuerin said.
...DeGuerin argued the case was brought solely because Democrats were unhappy with DeLay because of a congressional redistricting he pushed through in 2003...
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Whoohoo..............I thought I’d read that he’d “moved on” but wasn’t sure since that wouldn’t be news here in Mobile....LOL
I was thinking the same thing.
A longtime Democratic lawmaker was convicted in the Travis County Courthouse last month.
They convict them all here in Austin.
Congratulations Travis County Texas! The longest slow-motion political assassination in Texas history!
Austin...is a small piece of land in Texas...this small piece of land is the land of fruits and nuts...
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