Tom DeLay

Thomas Dale DeLay (born April 8 1947) is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Sugar Land, Texas, the former House Majority Leader, and a prominent member of the Republican Party. He resigned from Congress on June 9, 2006 after a series of criminal indictments.

A conservative, DeLay was elected to the House in 1984. He became known as "The Hammer" for his enforcement of party discipline in close votes and his reputation for exacting political retribution on opponents. He was appointed Deputy Minority Whip in 1988 and was elected House Majority Whip in 1995 after helping Newt Gingrich to lead the Republican Revolution. In the 1990s, he helped to start the K Street Project, an effort to pressure lobbying firms to hire Republicans to top positions. He was also a driving force behind President Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1998. DeLay was elected House Majority Leader after the 2002 midterm elections, and was credited in recent years with compelling House Republicans to march in lock step, especially in support of President George W. Bush's agenda.

In the early 2000s, DeLay helped to coordinate efforts to redistrict congressional districts in Texas to favor the election of more Republicans. In 2005, a Texas grand jury indicted DeLay on criminal charges that he had conspired to violate campaign finance laws during that period. DeLay denied the charges, saying that they were motivated by the partisan actions of Democratic District Attorney Ronnie Earle, but Republican Conference rules nonetheless forced DeLay to resign temporarily from his position as Majority Leader. In January 2006, under pressure from fellow Republicans, DeLay announced that he would not seek to return to the position. In the months before and after this decision, two of his former aides were convicted in the Jack Abramoff scandal. DeLay ran for re-election in 2006, and won the Republican primary election in March 2006. In April 2006, citing the possibility of losing the general election, he announced that he would withdraw from the race, and resign his seat in Congress. He resigned his seat on June 9 2006. As of 2006, a legal fight to determine whether DeLay legally withdrew from the race is ongoing.

Biography and early political career

DeLay was born in Laredo, Texas. He spent part of his childhood in Venezuela, due to his father's work in the petroleum and natural gas industry. He later attended Calallen High School in Corpus Christi, Texas, and spent two years as a pre-med student at Baylor University before he was expelled for drinking and vandalism–DeLay was caught painting a building at rival Texas A&M University green and gold, Baylor's colors. DeLay married Christine Furrh, whom he had known since high school, in 1967. The DeLays had a daughter, Danielle, in 1972.

DeLay received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in biology from the University of Houston in 1970. He spent three years working for Redwood Chemical before founding Albo Pest Control. This work was the source for his nickname "the Exterminator". In the eleven years for which DeLay ran the company, the IRS imposed tax liens on him three times for not paying payroll and income taxes. The Environmental Protection Agency's ban on a certain pesticide that was used in extermination work led DeLay to oppose government regulation of businesses, a belief that he has carried with him throughout his political career.

In 1978, DeLay won the election for an open seat in the Texas House of Representatives. He was the first Republican to represent Fort Bend County in the state House. During his time in the Texas Legislature, he struggled with alcoholism and gained a reputation as a playboy, earning the nickname "Hot Tub Tom". By the time of his election to Congress, he drank "eight, ten, twelve martinis a night at receptions and fundraisers." In 1985, soon after watching a video on fatherhood featuring Christian author and psychologist James Dobson, DeLay became a born-again Christian, and later gave up hard liquor. In 1994, Christine DeLay began volunteering as a court-appointed special advocate for children in foster care, and soon thereafter, the DeLays became foster parents to three teenage boys.

DeLay has declined to comment on reports in The New Yorker that he is estranged from much of his family, including his mother and one of his brothers. DeLay has not spoken to his younger brother, Randy, a Houston lobbyist, since 1996, when a complaint to the House Ethics Committee prompted Tom DeLay to cut his brother off in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

DeLay was elected to the House in 1984, representing the Texas 22nd congressional district, after his predecessor, Republican Ron Paul, declined to run for re-election to run in the Republican primary for the 1984 U.S. Senate race.

Early Congressional career

As a member of the Republican minority in the 1980s, DeLay made a name for himself by criticizing the National Endowment for the Arts and the Environmental Protection Agency. During his first term in Congress, DeLay was appointed to the Republican Committee on Committees, which assigned representatives to House committees, and in his second term, he was appointed to the powerful House Appropriations Committee. He also served for a time as chairman of a group of conservative House Republicans known as the Republican Study Committee.

In 1988, questions were raised about Republican vice-presidential nominee Dan Quayle's alleged use of family connections to get into the Indiana National Guard to avoid possible combat service in the Vietnam War. DeLay reportedly defended Quayle by saying that he had tried to enlist himself at the same age, but was told ethnic minorities had already filled most of the available positions.

No one close to DeLay could corroborate that DeLay made other attempts to serve. The Washington Post reported that he had received student deferments while at Baylor and had kept the deferment after his expulsion from Baylor in 1967. He received a high lottery number in 1969, and graduated from University of Houston in 1970.

DeLay was appointed deputy whip by then-Minority Whip Dick Cheney in 1988. When the Republican Party gained control of the House in 1995 following the 1994 election, DeLay was elected Majority Whip against the wishes of House Speaker-elect Newt Gingrich.

DeLay was not always on good terms with Gingrich or Dick Armey, the House Majority Leader from 1995 to 2003, and he reportedly considered them uncommitted to Christian values. In 1997 DeLay unsuccessfully tried to remove Gingrich from his position as Speaker. Nevertheless, in the heyday of the 104th Congress (1995-1997), DeLay described the Republican leadership as a triumvirate of Gingrich ("the visionary"), Armey ("the policy wonk"), and himself ("the ditch digger who makes it all happen").

In keeping with his opposition to environmental regulation, DeLay criticized proposals to phase out the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which lead to the depletion of the ozone layer. In 1995, DeLay introduced a bill to revoke the CFC ban and to repeal provisions of the Clean Air Act dealing with stratospheric ozone, arguing that the science underlying the ban was debatable. Shortly afterward, Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland were awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work demonstrating the relationship between CFCs and ozone depletion.

As Majority Whip, DeLay earned the nickname "The Hammer" for his enforcement of party discipline in close votes and his reputation for wreaking political vengeance on opponents. DeLay has expressed a like for his nickname, pointing out that the hammer is one of a carpenter's most valuable tools. In the 104th Congress, DeLay successfully whipped 300 out of 303 bills.

In 1998, DeLay worked to ensure that the House vote on impeaching President Bill Clinton was successful. DeLay rejected efforts to censure Clinton, who, DeLay said, had lied under oath. DeLay believed that the U.S. Constitution allowed the House to punish the president only through impeachment. He called on Clinton to resign, and personally compelled enough House members to vote to approve two articles of impeachment.Dubose and Reid, p. 157

Contributions from Russian oil executives

In December 2005, the Washington Post reported that, in 1998, a group of Russian oil executives had given money to a non-profit advocacy group linked to both DeLay and lobbyist Jack Abramoff in an attempt to influence DeLay's vote on an International Monetary Fund bailout of the Russian economy. Associates of DeLay advisor Ed Buckham, the founder of the U.S. Family Network, said that executives from the oil firm Naftasib had offered a donation of $1,000,000 to be delivered to a Washington, D.C.-area airport in order to secure DeLay's support. On June 25 1998, the U.S. Family Network received a $1 million check via money transferred through the London law firm James & Sarch Co. This payment was the largest single entry on U.S. Family Network's donor list. The original source of the donation was not recorded. DeLay denied that the payment had influenced his vote. Naftasib denied that it had made the payment and that it had ever been represented by James & Sarch Co. The now-dissolved law firm's former partners declined to comment due to confidentiality requirements.

Settlement in civil suit

In early 1999, Ann-Louise Bardach, a reporter for The New Republic picked up a story, first reported by Houston-area alternative weeklies, alleging that DeLay had committed perjury during a civil lawsuit brought against him by a former business partner in 1994.

The plaintiff in that suit, Robert Blankenship, charged that DeLay and a third partner in Albo Pest Control had breached the partnership agreement by trying to force him out of the business without buying him out. Blankenship filed suit, charging DeLay and the other partner with breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, wrongful termination, and loss of corporate expectancy. While being deposed in that suit, DeLay claimed that he did not think that he was an officer or director of Albo and that he believed that he had resigned two or three years previously. However, his congressional disclosure forms, including one filed subsequent to the deposition, state that he was either president or chairman of the company between 1985 and 1994. The plaintiff also alleged that Albo money had been spent on DeLay's congressional campaigns, in violation of federal and state law.

DeLay and Blankenship settled for an undisclosed sum. Blankenship's attorney told Bardach that had he known about the congressional disclosure forms, he would have referred the case to the Harris County district attorney's office for a perjury prosecution. These allegations have never been investigated and DeLay has never been charged with a crime in connection with this case.

Majority Leader

After serving as his party's Whip for eight years, DeLay was elected Majority Leader upon the retirement of Dick Armey in 2003. His tenure as Majority Leader was marked by strong Republican Party discipline and the use of parliamentary political techniques to preserve his party's control of the House.

After being indicted on September 28 2005, DeLay stepped down from his position as Majority Leader. DeLay was the first congressional leader ever to be indicted. Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri took over as acting leader. On January 7 2006, after weeks of growing pressure by Republican colleagues, most notably Reps. Charlie Bass and Jeff Flake, who were fearful of being associated with his legal issues in an election year, DeLay announced that he would not seek to regain his position as Majority Leader.

Legislative and electoral methods

DeLay was known to "primary" Republicans who resisted his votes (i.e., to threaten to endorse and to support a Republican primary challenge to the disobedient representative), and, like many of his predecessors in Congress, DeLay used promises of future committee chairmanships to bargain for support among the rank-and-file members of the party.

Employing a method known as "catch and release," DeLay allowed centrist or moderately conservative Republicans to take turns voting against controversial bills. If a representative said that a bill was unpopular in his district, then DeLay would ask him to vote for it only if his vote were necessary for passage; if his vote were not needed, then the representative would be able to vote against the party without reprisal.

In the 108th Congress, a preliminary Medicare vote passed 216-215, a vote on Head Start passed 217-216, a vote on school vouchers for Washington, D.C. passed 209-208, and "Fast track," usually called "trade promotion authority", passed by one vote as well. Both political supporters and opponents remarked on DeLay's ability to sway the votes of his party.

DeLay was also noted for involving lobbyists in the process of passing House bills. Lou Dubose and Jan Reid wrote a critical biography of DeLay, The Hammer, that quoted a lobbyist as saying, "I've had members pull me aside and ask me to talk to another member of Congress about a bill or amendment, but I've never been asked to work on a bill - at least like they are asking us to whip bills now."Dubose and Reid, p. 93

Like many successful incumbents, DeLay's ability to raise money gave him additional influence. During the 2004 election cycle, DeLay raised $2.91 million. Partly as a result of DeLay's management abilities, the House Republican caucus under him displayed unprecedented, sustained party cohesion.

On September 30 2004, the House Ethics Committee unanimously admonished DeLay because he "offered to endorse Representative ^* Smith's son in exchange for Representative Smith's vote in favor of the Medicare bill."

Domestic policy

In 2001, DeLay defied President George W. Bush when DeLay refused to increase the Earned Income Credit (EIC) welfare entitlement during the congressional battle over Bush's tax cuts for people making between $10,500 and $26,625 a year; when reporters asked DeLay about what he would do about increasing the EIC, DeLay simply stated, "ain't going to happen." When Bush's press secretary Ari Fleischer reiterated the president's desire for a low-income tax cut, DeLay retorted, "The last time I checked they [the executive branch don't have a vote."

On economic policy, DeLay was most recently rated a 95 out of 100 by Americans for Tax Reform, the lobbying group founded by Grover Norquist, and 95 to 100 by the United States Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby. On environmental policy, he earned ratings of 0 from the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters. He has been a fervent critic of the Environmental Protection Agency, which he has called the "Gestapo of government". DeLay is for gun rights in the gun politics debate. The American Civil Liberties Union measured that his voting history aligned with their civil liberties platform 0% of the time.

DeLay blamed Senate Democrats and what he dubbed "BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) environmentalists" for blocking legislative solutions to problems such as the 2003 North America blackout.

DeLay maintained public silence on Houston's 2003 METRORail light rail initiative, though in the past, he had opposed expanding light rail to Houston. Public filings later showed that DeLay had his Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee (ARMPAC) and his congressional campaign committee send money to Texans for True Mobility, an organization that advocated against the initiative. The proposal ultimately passed by a slim margin. Despite his earlier opposition, following the passage of the initiative, DeLay helped obtain funding for the light rail program.

DeLay is pro-life. In 2005, he voted 100% in line with the views of the National Right-to-Life Committee and 0% with the National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action League.

DeLay supported the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. Critics of this law argued that it unduly favors creditors over consumers, and noted that the credit card industry spent millions of dollars lobbying in support of the act.

In 2004, the House Ethics Committee unanimously admonished for his actions related to a 2002 energy bill. A Committee memo stated that DeLay "created the appearance that donors were being provided with special access to Representative DeLay regarding the then-pending energy legislation." In 2005, DeLay, acting against the president's wishes, initiated the "safe harbor" provision for MTBE in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, together with Rep. Joe Barton. This provision would have retroactively protected the makers of the gasoline additive from lawsuits. The provision was dropped from the final bill.

Foreign policy

DeLay has been a strong supporter of the State of Israel, saying, "The Republican leadership, especially that leadership in the House, has made pro-Israel policy a fundamental component of our foreign policy agenda and it drives the Democrat ^* leadership crazy — because they just can’t figure out why we do it!" In a 2002 speech, DeLay promised to "use every tool at my disposal to ensure that the Republican Conference, and the House of Representatives, continues to preserve and strengthen America's alliance with the State of Israel."

On a 2003 trip to Israel, DeLay toured the nation and addressed members of the Knesset. His opposition to land concessions is so strong that Aryeh Eldad, the deputy of Israel's conservative National Union Party, remarked, "As I shook his hand, I told Tom DeLay that until I heard him speak, I thought I was farthest to the right in the Knesset." Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom said "The Likud is nothing compared to this guy."Dubose and Reid, p. 236

In 2005, in a snub to the Bush administration, DeLay was the "driving force behind the rejection of direct aid" to the Palestinian Authority. The deal was "brokered" by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In the wake of the legislation, some Jewish leaders expressed concern "about the degree to which the Texas Republican, an evangelical Christian who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, will go to undercut American and Israeli attempts to achieve a two-state solution."

Accusations of misuse of federal investigative agencies

During the Texas redistricting warrant controversy, several Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives fled the state in order to prevent the House from establishing a quorum of members, thereby preventing the House from acting on any legislation. Although not a member of the Texas legislature, DeLay became involved, by contacting several federal agencies in order to determine the location of the missing legislators.

Three Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) offices (in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, D.C.)
Four Federal Bureau of Investigation offices (in Dallas, Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas, Austin, Texas and Ardmore, Oklahoma)
Two United States Marshal offices (in the Western and Northern Districts of Texas)
The United States Attorney's office in San Antonio, Texas
The Office of Legislative Affairs at the United States Department of Justice
The Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center (in Riverside, California)

U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman requested an investigation into the Congressman's involvement in the requests, and asked that any White House involvement be reported. The House Ethics Committee admonished DeLay for improper use of FAA resources.

The K Street Project

DeLay's involvement with the lobbying industry also included a pointed effort on the part of the Republican Party to parlay the Congressional majority into dominance of K Street, the lobbying district of Washington, D.C. DeLay, Senator Rick Santorum, and Norquist launched a campaign in 1995 encouraging lobbying firms to retain Republican officials in top positions. Firms that had Democrats in positions of authority, DeLay suggested, would not be granted the ear of Majority Party members.

In one instance, DeLay was privately reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee in 1999 after he pulled an important intellectual-property rights bill off of the House floor when the Electronics Industries Alliance hired a former Democratic Congressman, Dave McCurdy.

Firms initially responded to the campaign, but it waned during 2004, when the possibility of Senator John Kerry's winning the presidency gave lobbying firms some incentive to hire Democrats.

Terri Schiavo

DeLay made headlines for his role in the Terri Schiavo controversy. On Palm Sunday weekend in March 2005, several days after the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube was disconnected for the third time, the House met in emergency session to pass a bill allowing Schiavo's parents to petition a federal judge to review the removal of the feeding tube. DeLay called the removal of the feeding tube "an act of barbarism." DeLay faced accusations of hypocrisy from critics when the Los Angeles Times revealed that he had consented to ending life support for his father, who had been in a comatose state because of a debilitating accident in 1988.

DeLay was accused of endorsing violence in the wake of a series of high-profile violent crimes and death threats against judges when he said, "The men responsible Terri Schiavo's death will have to answer to their behavior." DeLay's comments came soon after the February 28 2005 homicide of the mother and husband of Chicago Judge Joan Lefkow, and the March 11 2005 killing of Atlanta Judge Rowland Barnes. DeLay's opponents accused him of rationalizing violence against judges when their decisions were unpopular with the public. Ralph Neas, President of the liberal People for the American Way, said that DeLay's comments were "irresponsible and could be seen by some as justifying inexcusable conduct against our courts." DeLay publicly apologized for the remark after being accused of threatening the Supreme Court.

Jack Abramoff

Direct connections

DeLay may be one of the targets of the Justice Department investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's actions. Abramoff allegedly provided DeLay with trips, gifts, and political donations in exchange for favors to Abramoff's lobbying clients, which included the government of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, internet gambling services, and several Native American tribes. Two of DeLay's former political aides, Tony Rudy and Michael Scanlon, as well as Abramoff himself, pled guilty in 2006 to charges relating to the investigation. Political columnist Robert Novak has since reported that Abramoff "has no derogatory information about former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and is not implicating him as part of his plea bargain with federal prosecutors."

According to ABC's 20/20 television program, Abramoff lobbied DeLay to stop legislation banning sex shops and sweatshops that force employees to have abortions in the Northern Mariana Islands when Abramoff accompanied DeLay on a 1997 trip to the U.S. commonwealth. While on the trip, DeLay promised not to put the bill on the legislative calendar.

In 2000, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a worker reform bill to extend the protection of U.S. labor and minimum-wage laws to the workers in the Northern Mariana Islands. DeLay, then the House Republican Whip, stopped the House from considering the bill. DeLay later blocked a fact-finding mission planned by Rep. Peter Hoekstra by threatening Hoekstra with the loss of his subcommittee chairmanship.

DeLay received gifts from Abramoff, including paid golfing holidays to Scotland, concert tickets, and the use of Abramoff's private skyboxes for fundraisers. In May 2000, ARMPAC received the free use of one of Abramoff's private skyboxes to host a political fundraiser. At the time, campaign finance laws did not require the use of the skybox, valued at several thousand dollars, to be disclosed or for Abramoff to be reimbursed for its use.

Later that month, the DeLays, Rudy, another aide, and Abramoff took a trip to London and Scotland. Abramoff paid for the airfare for the trip, and lobbyist Ed Buckham paid for expenses at a hotel at St. Andrews golf course in Scotland. Abramoff was reimbursed by The National Center for Public Policy Research, the nonprofit organization that arranged the trip. On the day that the trip began, The National Center received large donations from two of Abramoff's clients, internet lottery service eLottery, Inc., and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Both organizations denied that they had intended to pay for DeLay's trip. House rules forbid members to accept travel expenses from lobbyists, and require that members inquire into the sources of funds that nonprofits use to pay for trips. DeLay denied knowing that lobbyists had paid for travel expenses. In July 2000, DeLay voted against a bill that would have restricted internet gambling. Both eLottery and the Choctaws opposed the bill. Rudy, who was then DeLay's deputy chief of staff, engineered a parliamentary maneuver that required a two-thirds majority vote, rather than a simple majority, in order for the bill to pass. Rudy's actions on behalf of Abramoff's clients during this time were mentioned in Abramoff's guilty plea in January 2006.

In January 2006, The Associated Press reported that in 2001, DeLay co-signed a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft calling for the closure of a casino owned by the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas. Two weeks earlier, the Choctaws had donated $1,000 to DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC). A DeLay spokesman denied that the donations had influenced DeLay's actions. Currently, and at the time of the letter, casinos or other private gambling establishments are illegal in Texas, even on Indian reservations.

Scanlon, who became Abramoff's lobbying partner, pleaded guilty in November 2005 to conspiracy charges. Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy charges on January 3 2006, and agreed to cooperate with the government's investigation. His cooperation may have forced DeLay to abandon his efforts to return to his position as House Majority Leader, a decision that DeLay announced only a few days after Abramoff's plea bargain. Rudy pleaded guilty on March 31 2006 to illegally acting on Abramoff's behalf in exchange for gifts.

Indirect connections (Buckham)

Abramoff referred clients to Ed Buckham's Alexander Strategy Group (ASG), a lobbying firm. In addition, Abramoff clients gave more than $1.5 million to the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization controlled by Buckham; U.S. Family Network then paid ASG more than $1 million.

From 1998 to 2002, ASG paid Christine DeLay a monthly salary averaging between $3,200 and $3,400. DeLay's attorney, Richard Cullen, initially said the payments were for telephone calls she made periodically to the offices of certain members of Congress seeking the names of their favorite charities, and that she then forwarded that information to Buckham, along with some information about those charities. But in early June 2006, Cullen said the payments were also for general political consulting she provided to her husband. In all, Christine DeLay was paid about $115,000 directly by ASG, and got another $25,000 via money put into a retirement account by the firm. Her work with ASG has been the subject of an inquiry by the Department of Justice.

Investigation of alleged misconduct in Texas fundraising and indictments

In the reapportionment following the 1990 census, Texas Democrats drew what Republican political analyst Michael Barone argued was the most effective partisan gerrymander in the country. The Democrats won 70% of the Texas congressional seats in 1992, the first year in which the new districts were in effect, while taking slightly under 50% of the total number of votes cast for Congress statewide. After the 2000 census, which increased Texas's representation in the House from 30 to 32, Republicans sought to redraw the district lines to support a GOP majority in the congressional delegation, while Democrats desired to retain a plan similar to the existing lines. The two parties reached an impasse in the Texas Legislature, where Republicans controlled the Senate and Democrats controlled the House. As a result, the new district lines were drawn by a three-judge federal court panel that made as few changes as possible while adding the two new seats.

In 2001 the Texas Legislative Redistricting Board (a panel composed of the state's Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller, Speaker of the House, Attorney-General, and Land Commissioner) redrew state legislative districts in accordance with the census. The new map that was adopted by the Republican-dominated board gave the GOP an edge in winning the Texas House of Representatives, which was still controlled by the Democrats, in 2002. During the 2002 elections under these new maps, DeLay aggressively raised funds for Republican candidates under TRMPAC. It has since been alleged that TRMPAC was used to funnel illegal corporate donations into the campaigns of Republican candidates for State Representative.

Republican victories in 2002 resulted in their control of the Texas House in addition to the Senate. As a result, the Texas Legislature was called into session in 2003 to redistrict the state's congressional lines in favor of the Republican Party. A number of Democratic legislators left the state, going to Oklahoma, and later New Mexico, to deny a quorum for voting. They eventually returned, and the legislation passed. The new redistricting caused five Texas congressional seats to change hands from Democrats to Republicans during the 2004 elections.

On May 26 2005, a Texas judge ruled that TRMPAC had violated state law by not disclosing over $600,000 worth of fundraising money, mostly from the credit card industry, including $25,000 from Sears, Roebuck & Co. and $50,000 from Diversified Collection Services, a debt collection firm.

Grand jury indictments

On September 8 2005, a federal grand jury indicted TRMPAC, which allegedly accepted an illegal political contribution of $100,000 from the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, and the Texas Association of Business on four charges, including unlawful political advertising, unlawful contributions to a political committee and unlawful expenditures such as those to a graphics company and political candidates.

On September 28 2005, a Travis County grand jury operating under Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle indicted DeLay for conspiring to violate Texas state election law stemming from issues dealing with his involvement in Texans for a Republican Majority. Texas law prohibits corporate contributions in state legislative races. The indictment charged that Texans for a Republican Majority accepted corporate contributions, laundered the money through the Republican National Committee, and directed it to favored Republican candidates in Texas.

On September 30 2005, in response to a motion to dismiss his initial indictment, Earle sought a second indictment of DeLay from a second grand jury. That jury refused to indict. On October 3 2005, Earle sought and received a new indictment of DeLay from a third grand jury in Austin on charges of conspiracy and money laundering. The next day, in a written statement, Earle publicly admitted that he had presented the case to three grand juries, and that one of the three had refused to indict DeLay. Earle said that he had presented a the new money-laundering charge to another grand jury because the previous grand jury had expired. DeLay's lawyers said that Earle should not have waited to make the statement until after 5 P.M. that day. DeLay's attorneys later filed a motion in court to have the latest indictment thrown out, charging that Earle had coerced the grand jury and that he had illegally discussed grand jury information and had encouraged others to do the same.

Also on October 3, DeLay's lawyers filed a motion to throw out the charge of conspiracy to violate election law as fraudulent, claiming it was a violation of the U.S. Constitution's ban on ex-post facto applications of law. DeLay's lawyers claim that, in 2002, the crime of conspiracy did not apply to Texas election law. However, George Dix, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, believes that charges of criminal conspiracy could legally be applied to any felony (including violation of election law) committed prior to the 2003 law. He characterized the 2003 change cited by DeLay's lawyers as a clarification of existing law, saying, "It isn't unheard of–the Legislature passing a law to make clear what the law is."

Because the Texas Penal Code defines laundered money only as money gained as the "proceeds of criminal activity", DeLay's lawyers maintain that misuse of corporate donations, even if it occurred, could not constitute money laundering.

On October 19 2005, a Texas court issued a warrant for DeLay's arrest. DeLay surrendered at the Harris County, Texas jail the next day, was booked, was photographed, was fingerprinted, and posted a $10,000 bond. He appeared in court on October 21 2005.

On November 3 2005 Pat Priest, a "semi-retired" judge, was chosen to preside over the case. On November 22 2005 DeLay filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him. On December 5 2005 Judge Priest dismissed one count, conspiracy to violate election law, but let stand two counts alleging money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.. On April 19, 2006, the Texas Third Court of Appeals upheld the decision . On May 19 prosecutors filed an appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, to reinstate the conspiracy indictment.

Indictments of associates

On September 13 2005, a federal grand jury indicted ARMPAC's executive director Jim Ellis and TRMPAC's former executive director John Colyandro, who already faced charges of money laundering in the case, as well as 13 counts of unlawful acceptance of a corporate political contribution. The charges were brought before the grand jury by Earle. Joe Turner, who represents Colyandro, has said that he does not want a jury trial in Austin, because he believes that "DeLay and Republicans are hated ^*".

The indictment charges that DeLay, Colyandro and Ellis conspired to pass corporate contributions to candidates for the Texas legislature in violation of Texas campaign finance law. Allegedly, several corporations made contributions to TRMPAC. The indictment charged that TRMPAC then sent a check for $190,000 to the Republican National Committee, made payable to "RNSEC" (the Republican National State Elections Committee), along with a list of state-level Republican candidates who should receive the money. According to the indictment, the Republican candidates in Texas received the money so designated.

Earle's investigation of DeLay is the subject of an upcoming documentary, which was filmed with Earle's cooperation during 2004 and 2005, before DeLay was notified of the charges.

Reaction to indictments

DeLay denounced the charges as a "sham" and an act of "political retribution," perpetuated by his opponents. He added, "I have done nothing wrong, I have violated no law, no regulation, no rule of the House."

Earle, a Democrat, has indicted both Democratic and Republican office-holders in Texas, including an unsuccessful 1993 investigation of Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on charges of official misconduct and records tampering. DeLay said that Earle has a history of indicting his political enemies.

When DeLay initially stepped down from his position as Majority Leader, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that President Bush still viewed DeLay as "a good ally, a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people."

2006 campaign and resignation

DeLay won the Republican primary on March 7 2006, taking 62% of the vote in the four-way race. DeLay outspent his closest opponent, Tom Campbell, by a near 20-1 ratio. This was his lowest showing in a primary election, and it prompted questions about whether he could win the general election.

On April 3 2006, DeLay announced that he would not run for re-election. He explained that polls showed him beating Democratic opponent Nick Lampson in the general election, but that the possibility of losing the election was too risky. Also, in the months prior to DeLay's announcement, former aides Scanlon and Rudy pleaded guilty to various charges of corruption relating to the Jack Abramoff scandal. The announcement itself came only three days after Rudy's guilty plea. DeLay announced his resignation effective June 9 2006. DeLay said that he planned to move to a condominium that he owns in Virginia near Washington, D.C. He stated that he could serve "the conservative cause" best by forming a lobbying firm that would work to support conservative issues.

On May 24 2006, DeLay's final bill, the Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of Foster Children Act of 2006, passed in the House with unanimous support. In his farewell speech on June 9 to the House, he praised political partisanship for its contributions to democracy, and made a final appeal for better treatment of foster children.

As of 2006, several Republicans are vying to replace DeLay as their party's candidate for the 22nd congressional district. However, following DeLay's resignation, Texas Democrats filed a lawsuit claiming that the Republican Party could not legally name another candidate for the 2006 election. The Democrats have pointed out that Texas law states that if a person "withdraws" from a race after the primary, his name stays on the ballot. On the other hand, the GOP argues, Texas law also states that if a person is rendered "ineligible" for election, the party can name another candidate in his stead. The GOP argues that after resigning, DeLay moved to Virginia and registered to vote there, rendering him ineligible for the November election. The Democrats, on the other hand, note that he still maintains a home in Texas, where his wife still lives and (at the time of the suit's hearing, June 26 2006) was still registered to vote in Texas.. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled on July 6 that DeLay must remain on the ballot.

Notes

References

External links

U.S. Government links

DeLay testimony to the Committee on Resources, April 12 2000, in which he argues against restrictions on oil exploration
Investigation of Certain Allegations Related to Voting on the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, Report of the Committee of Standards of Official Conduct, September 30 2004. 72-page pdf file.

Indictments

Links to copies of indictments and evidence hosted by anti-DeLay website TRMPAC.org
Copy of conspiracy indictment State of Texas v. Colyandro, Ellis & DeLay (PDF)
Copy of money laundering indictment State of Texas v. Colyandro, Ellis & DeLay (PDF)

Citizen groups supporting DeLay

Defend DeLay A website run by the Tom DeLay Legal Expense Trust to support DeLay against the indictments

Citizen groups critical of DeLay

House of Scandal The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee details DeLay's ethics issues
Drop the Hammer A website run by the Center for American Progress describes an alleged "web of corruption"
Legal Action: CREW Assists Chris Bell (D-TX) in Drafting Ethics Complaint Against Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) (series of PDF files, and links to related news articles)

Documentary

The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress A critical documentary focusing on Tom DeLay's alleged involvement in illegal corporate political contributions and the 2003 redistricting of Texas.

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