Tom DeLay and his legal team needed a Texas judge to throw out the charges against him quickly so he could return to the Hill and fight anew to regain his leadership post.
Unfortunately for DeLay, the judge said no.
A judge dismissed the conspiracy charges Monday against Rep. Tom DeLay but refused to throw out the money-laundering counts, dashing the Texas congressman’s hopes for now of reclaiming his post as House majority leader.
Judge Pat Priest, who is presiding over the case against the Republican, issued the ruling after a hearing late last month in which DeLay’s attorney argued that the indictment was fatally flawed.
This isn’t a huge surprise; the conspiracy charge was always the weakest element of the case against DeLay, but the money-laundering counts are where DeLay has a real problem. After all, DeLay practically admitted to his role in the problem.
DeLay said he was also generally aware of a plan to shift money between Texas and Washington. It called for pulling together $190,000, sending it up to Washington and getting the same amount sent back to Texas for state election campaigns.
According to matching accounts provided separately by the sources, DeLay was asked whether such a deal happened and responded yes. Asked if he knew beforehand that the deal was going to happen, DeLay said yes. Asked how he knew, DeLay said that his longtime political adviser, [James] Ellis, came into his office, told him it was planned and asked DeLay what he thought. DeLay told Earle that he recalled saying, “Fine.” He added that he knew it was corporate money but said it was fine because he thought it was legal.
We learned in October that Ronnie Earle offered DeLay a plea bargain deal whereby the lawmaker could plead guilty to a misdemeanor and save his job as House majority leader, but DeLay and his legal team rejected the offer. It was the wrong move.
And now, the fight to be the next Majority Leader will begin in earnest. It could get ugly. Pass the popcorn.