No wonder DeLay has been hiring so many lawyers — he has a very serious legal problem on his hands.
In May 2001, Enron’s top lobbyists in Washington advised the company chairman that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was pressing for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year.
DeLay requested that the new donation come from “a combination of corporate and personal money from Enron’s executives,” with the understanding that it would be partly spent on “the redistricting effort in Texas,” said the e-mail to Kenneth L. Lay from lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson.
The e-mail, which surfaced in a subsequent federal probe of Houston-based Enron, is one of at least a dozen documents obtained by The Washington Post that show DeLay and his associates directed money from corporations and Washington lobbyists to Republican campaign coffers in Texas in 2001 and 2002 as part of a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts.
This revelation, on the front page of today’s Post, paints an ugly picture for the House majority leader. Texas law prohibits corporate money from being used for state campaigns. The Post report it makes it fairly obvious that money from Enron and others was being funneled directly into state GOP efforts — and that DeLay was orchestrating the whole thing.
Admittedly, the investigation has centered on a political action committee called Texans for a Republican Majority, not DeLay. In order for prosecutors to target DeLay directly, there’d have to be proof that he was actively involved with the PAC’s fundraising activities.
Well, as luck would have it:
Documents unearthed in the probe make clear that DeLay was central to creating and overseeing the fundraising.
Oops.
And speaking of DeLay, the former bug-spray salesman may soon be facing a criminal indictment, but there’s reason to believe the House Ethics Committee may be less aggressive. As Atrios noted over the weekend, the committee’s Republican members are somewhat indebted to their leader.
Of the five Republicans investigating an ethics complaint against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, four have received campaign contributions from DeLay’s political action committee, splitting $28,504 over the past seven years, records show.
The breakdown, according to Federal Election Commission records from 1997 through May 2004, is:
* $14,777 for Rep. Kenny Hulshof of Missouri. The latest contributions, totaling $9,000, were in 2000.
* $10,553 for Rep. Steven LaTourette of Ohio, with $10,000 coming this year.
* $1,764 for Rep. Judy Biggert of Illinois in 1998.
* $1,410 for Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, also in 1998.
* Chairman Joel Hefley of Colorado received no money from DeLay’s political action committee.
In addition, DeLay’s PAC gave money to most members of the “ethics pool,” a group designated by House Speaker Dennis Hastert to serve on potential investigative subcommittees. The PAC contributed $65,902 to eight of the 10 Republican members, ranging from $525 to Rep. Sam Johnson of Dallas to $20,000 for Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Election Commission records show.
Yeah, this inspires confidence in the system.