Way back in January, prosecutors investigating whether corporations illegally financed Tom DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC) struck an important deal as part of a “kingpin strategy.” Prosecutors already had the goods on the corporations making improper donations, but negotiated agreements whereby the businesses would get immunity in exchange for cooperation with the investigation. One of the eight companies involved was Westar Energy Inc — which has a very interesting story to tell.
A company indicted in a Texas campaign fundraising case says it was told that by giving a Tom DeLay political committee $25,000, company officials would get access to the U.S. House majority leader to influence legislation.
In court documents, Westar Energy of Kansas says that to meet with Mr. DeLay in 2002, company officials “were told they needed to write a check for $25,000” to Texans for a Republican Majority, known as TRMPAC.
It’s the first time a company has said it donated to the Texas committee created by Mr. DeLay in exchange for a meeting and legislative help.
Westar did as it was told and ponied up the money. As it happens, the process worked exactly as DeLay wanted it to. After contributing $25,000 to TRMPAC, DeLay met with Wester officials for a golf outing at a resort in June 2002. The officials used the opportunity to request a special exemption on energy legislation that was pending in the House at the time, and sure enough, after the check cleared, DeLay inserted Westar’s provision in a House bill. (It was later withdrawn after a grand jury began investigating DeLay’s political action committee.)
DeLay’s only luck here is one of timing. A couple of months ago, when reporters were in blood-in-the-water mode, this kind of development would probably be major news and might even weaken DeLay’s position even further. As it is, the story is getting lost in the shuffle.
But that doesn’t mean it’s going away. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics is going to ask the Justice Department to open a bribery investigation against DeLay in light of Westar’s revelations.
Dems would be wise to follow up. There’s not much of a defense for DeLay on this one.