Earle has no new evidence. He's toast.
Posted on 10/05/2005 12:56:03 AM PDT by anymouse
New evidence obtained during the weekend prompted the money laundering charges that were brought against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay this week, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle said Tuesday.
Earle said the grand jury that indicted DeLay last week on the last day of its term "declined to indict" on charges other than conspiracy to violate the election code.
Earle said in a statement that "additional information" that he would not detail came to him during the weekend, leading him to present the money laundering charges to a new grand jury Monday.
DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, of Houston, dismissed Earle's statement as spin.
"This is crazy," DeGuerin said. "I doubt he got any evidence of any kind other than we were going to bring this motion to dismiss."
The new indictment was returned Monday shortly after DeGuerin filed a motion to quash and dismiss the original indictment based on the claim that the state's conspiracy statute did not apply to the election code until a year after the alleged events of 2002.
Earle did not address the issues in DeGuerin's motion other than to say they will be "resolved by a judge."
DeLay, R-Sugar Land, has a hearing Oct. 21, but no judge has been officially assigned to his case yet.
Also Tuesday, DeGuerin criticized Earle at a Houston news conference, accusing him of offering "a sweet deal" to DeLay's co-defendants, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, to get them to testify against his client.
Ellis' lawyer, J.D. Pauerstein, of San Antonio, said prosecutors made offers but they were inadequate.
"I didn't perceive anything they offered as acceptable, let alone sweet. They were talking in terms of wanting to put these poor guys in jail," Pauerstein said.
The indictments against DeLay, Colyandro and Ellis focus on $190,000 in corporate money that was raised by Texans for a Republican Majority, TRMPAC, that could not legally be donated directly to candidates in Texas.
The indictments allege the corporate money was sent to the Republican National State Elections Committee in a scheme to have RNSEC return $190,000 in donations from individuals to Texas candidates.
The original indictment against DeLay had accused all three of conspiracy to violate the election code in the transaction. The second indictment added charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering against all three. A money laundering indictment against Ellis and Colyandro had been returned last year.
2003 law 'researched' DeGuerin said Earle was caught flat-footed with the original indictment because it alleged a crime that would not be illegal at the time it occurred.
"We researched very carefully to make sure that the law Ronnie Earle charged was violated had not come into effect until Sept. 1, 2003. We confirmed it top, side and bottom," DeGuerin said.
The September 2003 law applying the conspiracy statue to election laws was part of a House bill designed to prevent fraud in absentee balloting by making it a crime to mark a person's ballot without the person's consent.
The author of the bill, former state Rep. Steve Wolens, D-Dallas, did not return telephone calls Tuesday by the Houston Chronicle to discuss why the language was needed.
Several Republican lawmakers co-authored the bill.
DeGuerin said Earle is pursing a "political agenda" that forced DeLay to step down as House majority leader.
Veronica Dixon, one of the grand jurors who returned the original indictment, told the Chronicle on Tuesday the charge was not baseless or partisan.
"The only thing the grand jury bases its decisions on is the evidence presented to us. We had quite a lot of evidence," Dixon said.
Dixon, a state employee who voted in Democratic primaries in 2002 and 2004, said her actions weren't influenced by politics.
"My decisions had nothing to do with what party I belonged to," she said.
The Chronicle obtained the grand jury list on Tuesday under the Texas Open Records Act. State District Judge Mike Lynch had ordered it sealed.
Seven of the 12 grand jurors have voted in Democratic primaries in recent years, according to Travis County records. One grand juror voted in Republican primaries.
The other four grand jurors either had no history of voting in primaries or could not be positively identified.
Earle did not address the issues in DeGuerin's motion other than to say they will be "resolved by a judge."
The Chronicle obtained the grand jury list on Tuesday under the Texas Open Records Act. State District Judge Mike Lynch had ordered it sealed.
Seven of the 12 grand jurors have voted in Democratic primaries in recent years, according to Travis County records. One grand juror voted in Republican primaries.
The other four grand jurors either had no history of voting in primaries or could not be positively identified.
National Review is saying that DeLay is going after the filmmakers and even the cut-out film
Earle has no new evidence. He's toast.
This is much more entertaining, and a lot less depressing, than the Harriet in Oz show.
bttt
Evidence = Call from Hillary
I'm sure he has damaging evidence of Delay stealing candy from babies.
Earle is the one that should be legally accountable, finally, for his actions all these years. He has abused the system, there are few keeping a straight face over this circus.
On that note: Could Earle have been connected with the bogus documents used by CBS? He has long time connections to Rather's daughter.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
You're so right. The only thing he has had going for him the past couple of days is hopelessly liberal news outlets, and I think even they are deciding backing him will only succeed in tarnishing what's left of their reputations. Earle is becoming a pariah to the Texas media, on his way to becoming a national laughingstock.
Dan Rather probably came across some incriminating memos in his desk drawer.
Who will rip Earle yet another keister?
Is anybody thinking what I'm thinking about this "new evidence" ..??
Remember, this is the same democrat bunch that prepared a "forged document" regarding the President. Does anybody besides me think they may be trying the same thing again ..?? Bob Burkett lives in that county, as does Dan Rather's daughter. This "new evidence" is not passing the smell test .. and I haven't even seen what it is yet.
Earl needs this new evidence to stay in the headlines.
Talk about a kangaroo court, is this not his third or fourth Grand Jury in this "case"..? He finally got one stacked with his constituents, the same lunatics that will continue to reelect him till he moves on to the HOR.
A pardon from gov. Perry nukes this clown Earle and his whole pathetic leftwing lynch mob.
Landmark Legal Foundation has generated a really pointed FOIA request of Earle and his office. There's a thread about it here somewhere.
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