Posted on 11/24/2010 3:18:25 PM PST by Non-Sequitur
For five years, the case against Tom DeLay for money laundering through his Texans for a Republican Majority PAC has been seemingly trapped in the Texas courts facing pre-trial appeals. On November 1, it finally made it to trial and today the verdict is in: guilty on both money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The slightly-less-than-humble DeLay lost his majority leadership in Congress after the indictment came down, but he has maintained his claims that this case was politically motivated throughout the entire process right up to defense attorney Dick DeGuerin's closing arguments.
The jury clearly didn't buy his argument and now DeLay is potentially facing life in prison on money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges. DeLay is accused of channeling $190,000 in corporate money through his Texans for a Republican Majority PAC in 2002 to aid GOP candidates.
I sure didn’t see that coming.
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In Austin? I did.
Show trial by a political prosecutor in a leftist jurisdiction.
I know of several GOP crooks in TX and elsewhere. I wouldn’t want life in prison for them though.
I’m not here to defend wrongdoing. I still find it somewhat difficult to believe that standing out front of an election precinct with a night-stick is okay, and conducting fund-raising as it’s been done for decades, is not.
With us it seems to be letter of the law, and with the Left it seems always to be attributable to a simple misunderstanding.
Equal justice? Sure, and ACORN is just another wholesome entity on the American scene.
Hermandad Nacional registers illegals to vote in California, contributes to the loss of a Congressional seat? No problem. Don’t do it again fellas.
Sheesh.
Especially since the current Congress is raiding the national treasury to the tune of trillions of dollars with no consequence.
I didn’t either, but I do want to hear more before I buy into this verdict.
Delay vs the corrupt slime from NY.
Wanna bet which one was much more corrupt?
Wanna bet which one gets the most severe penalties?
Answer: Q1: The black guy.
Answer: Q2: The white guy.
And we wonder why respect for congress is just below that of a fly that has landed on Barney...er ...a t*rd.
I always like it when the news report is so unbiased that they just give me the facts without throwing in opinion.
The al-qaida terrorist convicted of one of 284 counts last week will likely get a 20-30 year sentence, while DeLay could get 99. WTF?
You just watch this go away after an appeal.
Yes indeed! "The Hammer" should and must go free! He's a great Constitutional Conservative American Patriot in my estimation.
One of the many data points that make Tom DeLay a good man is that he got a 0% approval rating from the union thugs of the AFL-CIO. Another plus for Mr. DeLay is his total and complete disapproval from the Marxist/Leninist outfit known as the ACLU.
These trumped up charges against this fine Texan come from fifth columnists.
Corporate donations to a PAC are money laundering? That ought to make a lot of corporations and PACs nervous. And will Democrats who do this get the same penalties? Not a chance.
What about infanticide? Bill, Hillary and Obama are all guilty. They should all be tried at a international court for crimes against humanity, who is more innocent than a unborn baby?
This rant is not aimed at anybody here, just saying that this verdict is ridiculous, and clearly the jury was selected for their left leaning politics! These jury picking experts are good at doing this.
I wonder if there was a democrat on the jury that was highly pissed off about the recent election/Bristol Palin/Sarah Palin/global warming/etc.
Not to pick-nits, appellate courts don't "clear" people. Appellate courts her appeals from litigants (defendants, in this case) that argue the trial judge erred in his application of law. They don't find fact, therefor they can't "clear" anyone. If the judge made no mistake(s), the verdict will unlikely be overturned. Even if it was, Delay would then put him at the mercy of another prosecution.
Succinctly put, this is bad.
I haven't seen anywhere that the prosecution proved any of them other than Delay potentially knew about the swap and may have lied about it.
Is this correct?
Once upon a time when I said that there were different rules for dhimmicrats than for Republicans I was being facetious - no more.
I don’t understand this case. Maybe someone knowledgable can tell me if I have this right or wrong.
Delay had at least $190,000 in his PAC. He asked for corporate contributions and got at least $190,000 from corporations. He then gave $190,000 for various Republicans running for Texas office.
DeLay’s interpretation of this is that he gave the non-corporation money to the Republicans and just refilled the PAC with corporate money. The conviction is based on the interpretation that the $190,000 given to Republicans came from the corporations. And since it is illegal for corporations to donate to Texas candidates, then it would be illegal for Delay to give them money indirectly from corporations using his PAC.
Do I have that right? That Delay’s argument is that he had enough non-corporation private donation money in his PAC that it covered the $190,000 given to the Texas GOP candidates?
If I have this right, this is like telling a food stamp recipient he can’t use his new $100 food stamp to buy booze, but giving him that $100 for food frees up the $100 he was going to use for food that is now available for booze. Sleezy and against intent, but perfectly legal as long as he does not use the actual food stamp money directly for booze.
Do I have this case right or am I missing out on the details?
He had the best defense attorney in the state and they could not stall the case going to the jury a couple more days.
The jurors looked at each other and decided, “We are going home for Thanksgiving and in order to do that we have to sent Tom to prison.”
This was a political show trial on trumped charges tried with a politicized, hostile jury.
If there is any justice, Delay will win on appeal. Compared to what we are seeing with the Democrats for the last several years, Delays charges are like giving out a speeding ticket at the Indy 500
As I understand, the jury foreperson was a female Greenpeace activist. There were six Democrats, 1 Republican, 3 Liberal Independents and 2 “Moderate” Independents.
Just like the Scooter Libby trial, this was a travesty. I pray for true Justice to come to our country. It isn’t here now.
Democrats literally get away with murder. Republicans get their lives ruined or 99 years for non-crimes.
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