DeLay case may boil down to a single money transfer

[Judi Lynn]

DeLay case may boil down to a single money transfer
By Laylan Copelin

Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service

Sunday, October 09, 2005

AUSTIN, Texas — The conspiracy indictments against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and his co-defendants tell an intriguing tale of a blank check, a wish-list for campaign donations for Texas candidates and money laundering at the highest levels of the Republican National Committee.

To the defense team, it's just a tale: They argue the $190,000 transaction was legal, the list might never have existed and DeLay learned of the money transfer, in passing, only after it occurred.

Yet Austin lawyer Randall "Buck" Wood, who was the first to publicly question DeLay's campaign-finance tactics during the 2002 elections in Texas, says the case against DeLay and his two co-defendants, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, might turn out to be much simpler. A single money transfer — the first in the series — could be the key, Wood says, because it shows that those handling the money went beyond what Texas allows when it comes to the use of corporate money in politics.

Austin lawyer Terry Scarborough, who once represented DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority, the political committee that initiated the money swap, disagrees.
(snip/...)

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/nation/epaper/2005/10/09/a7a_delay_1009.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oct. 8, 2005, 11:12PM

DeLay leads own defense with potent offense
Former House leader begins fight in the court of public opinion
By SAMANTHA LEVINE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

REP. TOM DELAY

HOME: Sugar Land
AGE: 58. April 8, 1947.

EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree, University of Houston, 1970.

EXPERIENCE: Owner, Albo Pest Control, 1973-84; Texas House, 1978-84; U.S. House, 1984-present; House Majority Whip, 1994-2002; House Majority Leader, 2002-present.

FAMILY: Wife, Christine; daughter, Danielle; 1 grandchild.

WASHINGTON - As far as Tom DeLay is concerned, there is only one person suited to the job of defending him outside the courtroom against the criminal indictments that have suddenly thrown his future into doubt: himself.
(snip)

To that end, DeLay vehemently has repudiated the charges on numerous television programs, including several on the Fox network such as Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace and Special Report with Brit Hume. The network is a favorite of conservatives.

He has granted interviews to MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.
DeLay also has given frequent radio interviews, including spots with conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, the Christian Broadcasting Network and Houston-area stations KTRH, KPRC, and KSEV.
(snip)

Ads critical of DA

The conservative Free Enterprise Fund aired a television commercial criticizing Earle.The ad ran through Friday on the Fox News Channel and on other channels in some Texas cities and other selected areas across the country.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/3387511
(Free registration required)

[Bob3]

1. come on you only have to rob a bank once to go to jail

Why is it different for the white collar boys? Oh yes that's right they make the rules.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Ha! Great minds, y'know

I owe you a beer.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. So do bank robberies...

:rofl:

Is this supposed to minimize the crime? If somebody robs me at gunpoint, the case essentially "boils down to a single money transfer." Doesn't make it any less an armed robbery...

[Judi Lynn]

4. When Lawmaking and Lobbying Are All in the Family (Delay's pal,Roy Blunt)

When Lawmaking and Lobbying Are All in the Family

By GLEN JUSTICE
Published: October 9, 2005
WASHINGTON — PERHAPS it was inevitable in a city where passion and power live side by side: people who start as colleagues or contemporaries often wind up cohabitating. Journalists marry spokespeople. Government workers marry activists. Lawmakers marry lobbyists.



Kyle Samperton/Washington Life Magazine
Roy Blunt, Republican of
Missouri and House majority
leader, pictured in 2004 with
Abigail Perlman, wife and lobbyist
for Altria Group.

Forum: The 109th Congress
It's the last category that often leads government watchdogs to grind their teeth. How can a member of Congress possibly share a bed and a bank account with a member of the persuasion industry without a life laced by conflicts of interest?

"This is way up there on the unseemly scale," said Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch.

But in a city that has embraced the power couple like few others, and where a "mixed marriage" is considered to be one between a Democrat and a Republican, examples of lobbyist-lawmaker unions are plentiful.

One that has recently emerged involves Representative Roy Blunt, the Missouri Republican who took over as House majority leader after Representative Tom DeLay was indicted.

Mr. Blunt's wife is Abigail Perlman, a lobbyist for Altria Group, the parent company of the cigarette maker Philip Morris. One son, Andrew Blunt, is a state-level lobbyist for a Missouri law firm, whose client list includes Altria. Another son, Matt Blunt, is the governor of Missouri.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/weekinreview/09lobbyist.html
(Free registration required)

[democrat in Tallahassee]

5. Well, on this case. Just wait til Abramoff sings like Miller.

That is when the stuff really hits the fan.

[napi21]

6. You also have to remember that Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion!

Did EVERYONE know he was guilty of having people killed, and for doing some of it himself? Sure! Was it common knowledge that he was the Mafia crime boss and guilty of more felonies than we can count? Sure! But none of it could be proven in court!

Clever criminals are very good at covering their tracks and keeping themselves distant enough so they are not personaly linked. BUT, sooner or later, they all make ONE mistake! That mistake might not be as serious a crime as the others they've done, but it's the one that can be proven. THAT'S the important thing!

[Pepperbelly]

7. 190 K in, 190 K out.

What else do you need for laundering?

[zann725]

9. Well...as in clothes "laundering"..a lot happens in that final 'spin.

n/t

[Judi Lynn]

8. DeLay-Blunt chronology

DeLay-Blunt chronology


The Associated Press
Published Thursday, October 6, 2005
Key events in the exchange of donations in 2000 between Tom DeLay's political groups and a group belonging to Roy Blunt, the new House majority leader:

• March 31: DeLay's unregulated ARMPAC convention fund donates $50,000 to the Missouri arm of Blunt's ROYB Fund.
  
  
• April 7: Blunt's ROYB Fund donates $10,000 to the DeLay Foundation.
  
  
• April 7 to May 1: Blunt's ROYBPAC pays $40,000 to Alexander Strategy Group Inc., run by former DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham and employing DeLay's wife, Christine.
  
  
• April 14: Northern Mariana Islands-based Concorde Garment Manufacturing, part of the island coalition that hired Jack Abramoff as a lobbyist, contributes $3,000 to Blunt's ROYB Fund. Concorde was sued and fined in the 1990s for alleged sweatshop practices.
  
  
• May 9: Blunt's ROYB Fund donates $1,000 to the Cancer Research Foundation of America through Jim Ellis, a DeLay fundraiser.

(snip/...)

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Oct/20051006News012.asp

[MidwestTransplant]

10. So it's a 1 count indictment. BFD. Money laundering is illegal even if

done only once. You don't get a free pass bug boy.

[Kipling]

11. You guys misunderstand - it'll only take proof of 1 transaction to convict

That's what they mean.
the case against DeLay and his two co-defendants, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, might turn out to be much simpler. A single money transfer — the first in the series — could be the key
This story is showing how screwed he is, not trying to diminish his crimes.

[cassiepriam]

12. That is why he is doing his own PR, to minimize his sentence? nt

[Say_What]

13. Delay--soon to be Texas Toast...

[Massacure]

14. They critisized Earle in television ads?

Nail em for hindering an investigation. That will shut them up fast.

[yellowcanine]

15. Trying to taint the jury. Earle should request a gag order to shut them up

Next DeLay's lawyer will seek a change of venue from Austin based on the fact that there has been too much publicity - when it has been DeLay and his supporters doing most of the talking.