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Three Linked to DeLay Indicted in Texas Scandal
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Three men with close ties to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay were indicted on Tuesday along with eight companies for illegal fund-raising activities in a political action committee formed by the powerful Texan.
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle told reporters the investigation, not yet finished, had uncovered ominous behavior by the group.
"What has emerged is the outline of an effort to use corporate contributions to control representative democracy in Texas," he said.
The grand jury in Austin has been looking into whether DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority, of TRMPAC, gave candidates money that came from corporate donors, which is illegal in Texas.
Those indicted included former TRMPAC director John Colyandro, Washington-based fund-raiser Warren Robold and former DeLay aide Jim Ellis, who now heads Delay's national fund-raising group Americans for a Republican Majority.
Ellis was indicted on one count of money laundering, Colyandro on 14 counts of money laundering and accepting unlawful political contributions, and Robold, 48, on nine counts of making and accepting unlawful political contributions.
Ellis, 47, and Colyandro, 40, were accused of taking $190,000 in corporate donations and giving it to the Republican National State Elections Committee, which then gave like amounts to seven candidates for the Texas House of Representatives.
Colyandro was accused of accepting a total of $450,000 in illegal contributions, and Robold $250,000.
DeLay told reporters in his House leadership office the indictments showed the Texas investigation "isn't about me" and said he knew of no wrongdoing. He admitted helping TRMPAC raise money, but said "I wasn't involved in the day-to-day operations."
He chalked up the charges against his associates to election year politics. District Attorney Earle is a Democrat and has been accused by Republicans of conducting the TRMPAC probe to help his party.
"This is 41 days before the election. You do the political math," DeLay said. "People see this for what it is."
Sears, Roebuck and Co., Oklahoma energy firm Williams Companies, restaurant chain Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a unit of CBRL Group Inc., booze maker Bacardi USA and electric utility Westar Energy Inc. were the best known of the eight companies indicted for making illegal contributions that ranged up to $100,000 to TRMPAC.
The others included Questerra Corp. a unit of Meadwestvaco Corp., Diversified Collection Services Inc. and Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care Corp.
TRMPAC was a big contributor to Republican candidates to the Texas legislature in 2002 and helped elect the first Republican majority in that body since the Civil War.
The fund-raising efforts paid off for DeLay when the Republican-controlled state legislature last year pushed through, under his direction, a controversial redistricting plan for the 32 Congressional seats from Texas.
DeLay represents a Houston-area district in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The plan, which Democrats in the legislature tried to halt by twice fleeing the state to prevent a quorum, could add several more Republicans to what is now a narrow Republican majority in the U.S. House, legislators said.
The U.S. House ethics committee is currently considering whether to investigate DeLay for a complaint filed by U.S. Rep. Chris Bell, a Democrat from Houston.
Some of Bell's charges track those under investigation in Texas, including that DeLay used a political action committee to launder illegal contributions.
DeLay denied any wrongdoing and charged Bell took the action because the first-term Democrat blamed him for his defeat in a 2004 Democratic primary.
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09/21/2004 18:30
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