DeLay associates indicted
By April Castro, The Associated Press

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Two associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay were indicted Tuesday on additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in the 2002 legislative races.

The indictment was the latest from a grand jury investigating the use of corporate money in the campaigns that gave Republicans control of the Texas House.

In Texas, state law prohibits using corporate contributions to advocate the election or defeat of state candidates.

The two men indicted Tuesday, Jim Ellis, who heads Americans for a Republican Majority, and John Colyandro, former executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, already faced charges of money laundering in the case. Colyandro also faces 13 counts of unlawful acceptance of a corporate political contribution.

The money-laundering charges stem from $190,000 in corporate funds that were sent to the Republican national party, which then spent the same amount on seven candidates for the Texas Legislature.

DeLay has not been charged in any cases, though he has close ties to individuals and groups that have been.

DeLay associates indicted again
By John Moritz, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 14, 2005

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Additional indictments were handed up Tuesday against two associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, this time accusing the pair of conspiring to violate Texas election laws on behalf of several Republican candidates during the 2002 campaign.

Jim Ellis, one of DeLay's top political aides in Washington, and Austin resident John Colyandro, who three years ago ran the majority leader's Texas political action committee, were also accused of additional violations of law prohibiting corporate campaign contributions.

A lawyer for one of the men accused Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, of abusing his prosecutorial authority and dragging out the investigation he opened nearly three years ago despite little or no evidence of wrongdoing.

"It looks like the same old stuff to me," said J.D. Pauerstein, who represents Ellis. "The fact that he's gone back and added indictments for what is essentially the same deed is an example of gross prosecutorial misconduct. I don't know what kind of game he's playing."

Joe Turner, who represents Colyandro, said, "They've been at it for going on three years now, and they still don't know what their case ought to look like." Turner restated his insistence that his client did nothing unlawful during the 2002 campaign.

Nearly a year ago, Ellis, Colyandro and DeLay associate Warren Robold were indicted on charges that they had circumvented the laws barring corporate campaign contributions in their zeal to orchestrate the successful GOP takeover of the Texas House.

Last week, Earle announced the indictment of two high-profile organizations on charges that they, too, skirted the ban on corporate contributions.

One of the groups, Texans for a Republican Majority, an outgrowth of DeLay's Americans for Republican Majority, was run by Colyandro. It is now defunct. The other group was the Texas Association of Business, one of the most influential lobby organizations in Austin.

The indictments announced Tuesday include the same money-laundering charge that was already pending against Ellis and Colyandro.

In addition, the men are now charged with making a corporate contribution in violation of the Texas Election Code and with making a political contribution to a political party within 60 days of an election in violation of the Texas Election Code.

They are also charged with conspiracy to violate both provisions of the Texas Election Code.

Money laundering is a first-degree felony with a possible punishment of 5 to 99 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The two violations of the Election Code are third-degree felonies punishable by a possible prison sentence of 2 to 10 years and a fine of up to $10,000.

Criminal conspiracy as charged in this indictment is a state jail felony with a possible punishment of 180 days to 2 years in the jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

The allegation of money laundering came after Earle's office learned that $190,000 in corporate campaign contributions that was delivered to the national Republican Party was returned to Texas, where it was then spent on behalf of seven GOP legislative candidates.

CREW'S Actions Against Maj. Leader Tom DeLay

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CREW drafted a complaint against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay which Rep. Chris Bell (D-TX) filed with the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. The filing of this complaint broke the seven year 'truce' under which both parties agreed not to file complaints with the House ethics committee and led to DeLay being admonished twice by the House ethics committee. Mr. DeLay was so enraged by this outcome that he asked the House Rules Committee to hold CREW be held in contempt of Congress for its work.

CREW sued the Federal Election Commission over the Commission's denial of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by CREW requesting the release of a report regarding campaign finance violations made by Westar Energy Company for the purpose of obtaining preferential legislative treatment by Congress. One such contribution was $25,000 donated to one of Rep. DeLay's political action committees, Texans for a Republican Majority, a donation which has led to Westar's indictment by a Texas grand jury.

CREW asked the IRS to audit two of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's PACs, Americans for a Republican Majority and Texans for a Republican Majority, based on the PACs' failure to comply with federal tax laws.

CREW asked the Department of Justice to initiate a grand jury investigation into the attempted bribery and extortion of Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI) on the floor of the House during the vote on the Medicare bill. CREW filed the request after hearing Smith say, in a radio interview, that he had been offered $100,000 for his son's congressional campaign if he changed his vote, but warned that his son would never win election if Smith refused. After Smith retracted his statements, CREW asked the Department of Justice to investigate a potential coverup by the House Republican leadership. Once the Department of Justice investigation became public, the House ethics committee initiated an investigation and admonished Majority Leader Tom DeLay for his role in attempting to influence Smith.

CREW publicized the relationship between House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and the Bacardi Corporation and exposed DeLay's efforts to secretly add trademark legislation to a defense authorization bill on behalf of Bacardi, despite opposition by numerous large corporations including DuPont, Caterpillar, and Kodak. As a result of CREW's efforts, the legislation was eventually pulled from bill.

CREW publicized Tom DeLay's vicious letter, written on behalf of the Right to Work Foundation, which libeled unions by claiming that they are a threat to the national security of the country. When DeLay claimed that a staff member erroneously signed the letter for him, CREW publicized a recorded fundraising phone message in which DeLay repeated the allegations. DeLay was forced to publicly apologize to the unions.

From The Center For Public Integrity

Illegal Defense
Center finds violations, missing records regarding legal expense funds
By Lauren Bonora, Kate Sheppard and Alex Knott

WASHINGTON, August 4, 2005 House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid are among five lawmakers who accepted donations to their legal expense funds in apparent violation of congressional ethics rules from registered lobbyists and foreign agents, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity.

The Center's analysis of the legal expense funds maintained by eight sitting members of Congress revealed that in addition to DeLay and Reid, those receiving questionable donations included Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Those five legislators collectively received donations from 12 lobbyists, the Center found.

Legal expense funds are designed to defray costs related to a variety of proceedings, including ethics, civil and criminal matters. Both House and Senate rules forbid any "contribution or other payment by a registered lobbyist or an agent of a foreign principal to a legal expense fund." This prohibition is similar to one that bars lobbyists and foreign agents from paying for lawmakers' travel.

DeLay faces a possible investigation by the House ethics committee over allegations that embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff paid for some of the Texas Republican's travel, including a golf outing to Scotland. Abramoff is currently under criminal and congressional investigation for allegedly bilking six American Indian tribes out of tens of millions of dollars, and in the process possibly circumventing lobbying disclosure laws.

All legal fund PDFs

The Center found that five registered lobbyists and one lobbying firm contributed a total of $8,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund, although $3,500 of that was later returned. DeLay established this fundwhich has since raised slightly more than $1 million on June 22, 2000, after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee filed a lawsuit accusing him of extorting campaign contributions. That suit was settled in 2001.

McDermott received questionable donations to his legal defense fund from the second-highest number of contributors: four lobbyists gave a total of $2,500. Both Hatch and Reid, a Nevada Democrat, received one donation of $3,000 each, and Hyde accepted one of $1,000.

All legal fund PDFs

The Tom Delay Scandals

Ethics Rules on Travel for House Members, and Tom DeLay's Ethics Lapses

Mr. Rick Santorum, Chair of the Republican Conference, Says That Tom DeLay Must Answer Ethics Questions

Representative Tom DeLay (R-Texas) Seems to be Sinking in Unethical Mud

New York Times Editorial on Tom DeLay says He is Detached From the Nation's Business, Electoral Democracy, and His Party