Grand jury re-indicts DeLay
on new laundering charge
BY APRIL CASTRO
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — A Texas grand jury
on Monday re-indicted Rep. Tom
DeLay on charges of conspiring to
launder money and money laun
dering after the former majority
leader attacked the original indict
ment on technical grounds.
The new indictment, handed up
by a grand jury seated Monday, con
tained two counts. The money laun
dering charge carries a penalty of up
to life in prison. Last week, DeLay
was charged with conspiracy to vio
late campaign-finance laws.
Defense lawyers asked a judge
Monday to throw out the first indict
ment, arguing that the charge of
conspiring to violate campaign fi
nance laws was based on a statute
that did not take effect until 2003 —
a year after the alleged acts.
The new indictment from District
Attorney Ronnie Earle, coming just
hours after the new grand jurors
were sworn in, outraged DeLay.
“Ronnie Earle has stooped to a
new low with his brand of prose
cutorial abuse,” DeLay said in a
statement. “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. This is an abomination
of justice.”
Earle's office did not return re
peated phone calls from The Associ
ated Press.
In a written statement, the office
outlined the new charges and
possible punishments, but did not
address criticism from DeLay’s
attorneys.
Delay, 58, is the highest-ranking
member of Congress to face crimi
nal prosecution. House Republican
rules forced him to temporarily step
aside as majority leader while he
fights the charges.
DeLay and two political associ
ates are accused of conspiring to
get around a state ban on corpo
rate campaign contributions by
funneling the money through the
DeLay-founded Texans for a
Republican Majority Political
Action Committee to the Republi
can National Committee in Wash
ington. The RNC then sent back
like amounts to distribute to Texas
candidates in 2002, the indictment
alleges.
DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin
said the money spent on Texas can
didates was “lawfully collected from
individuals who knew what they
were contributing to.”
The indictment alleges that DeLay
knowingly aided the transfer of the
corporate money to help the GOP win
a majority in the Texas Legislature.
Once the Republicans had se
cured control of the Legislature,
state lawmakers adopted a DeLay
engineered congressional redistrict
ing plan that gave the GOP a
stronger grasp on Congress as well.
It was unclear when Delay would
appear in court to face the new
charges. No arraignment date had
been set.
DeLay’s associates, John Colyan
dro of Austin and Jim Ellis of Wash
ington, were each previously indict
ed on charges of conspiracy to
violate campaign finance laws and
money laundering.
The judge who will preside in De
Lay’s case is out of the country on
vacation and could not rule on the
defense motion. Other state district
judges declined to rule on the mo
tion in his place.
Two other members of Congress
have been indicted since 1996.
Former Rep. William Janklow,
R-S.D., was convicted of vehicular
homicide and sentenced to 100
days in prison after his car struck
and killed a motorcyclist in 2003.
Former Rep. James Tfaficant,
D-Ohio, was sentenced to eight
years in prison after being convict
ed on charges from a 2001 indict
ment accusing him of racketeering
and accepting bribes.
Legislative ethics
law may be revised
and spotlighted
BY CHARLES E. BEGGS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALEM — A citizen commission
weighing how to improve the Legisla
ture needs to consider whether gov
ernment ethics laws should be
strengthened, the head of one commis
sion panel said Monday.
“I think that’s something we could
do to improve the public’s view of the
Legislature,” said Kerry Tymchuk,
chairman of the commission’s public
institutions committee.
Tymchuk’s comments followed a
presentation from the executive direc
tor of the state ethics agency, who out
lined laws that deal with the disclosure
of spending on entertaining public offi
cials and on gifts to them.
Pat Hearn, Government Standards
and Practices Commission director,
made no specific recommendations
and said he was not speaking for his
commission.
He said the legislative reform
panel might want to consider
whether to revise laws that allow
people with a legislative interest to
spend up to $100 a year on gifts for
public officials.
He also noted that a lobbyist, for ex
ample, can spend up to $71 per occa
sion wining and dining a legislator,
without having to disclose on whom
the money is spent.
Hearn suggested the panel might
also look at whether financial disclo
sure statements that public officials are
required to file could be improved.
The statements require officials to
report only broad sources of income
but provide few specifics.
“I don’t the think the economic in
terest statements are too helpful” to
the public, Hearn said.
Tymchuk said after the meeting he
thinks a close review of ethics laws
and rules is warranted, including how
the state ethics agency is financed.
Hearn said an “innate flaw” in the
system is that the Legislature controls
the budget of a commission that en
forces the ethics laws that apply to
lawmakers.
The panel headed by Tymchuk,
who works for Republican U.S. Sen.
Gordon Smith of Oregon, is part of a
new 30-member Public Commission
on the Legislature.
The commission was appointed by
legislative leaders to consider a variety
of topics, such as technical operations,
whether legislators should meet every
year instead of biennially and how the
public image of the Legislature could
be burnished.
Outdoor Program Open House
Wednesday, October 5,5:30 pm: Outdoor Program
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iHiEEg
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