Tom Delay: Remember Him?

Remember Tom Delay? Well, a Texas judge has ordered that a couple of operatives from his PAC stand trial for money laundering (according to the Austin American Statesman)

GOP operative should stand trial for money-launderingJudge makes first ruling in corporate cash case

Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

State District Judge Bob Perkins today said he believes two officials with Texans for a Republican Majority should stand trial on felony charges of money laundering.
The judge ruled that the state election code is constitutional and said he disagreed with arguments that the money-laundering charges had to refer to "cash" instead of a $190,000 check that the pair is accused laundering during the 2002 legislative elections.
Perkins, a Democrat who must run for office, referred to his own fundraisers: "All the funds I ever received were checks. In my opinion, funds would include checks."

Although Perkins was clear on what he thought the law was, the results of the hearing were muddled because he ruled in the case against John Colyandro, the executive director of TRMPAC, but withheld a ruling in the case against political consultant Jim Ellis, at the request of Ellis' lawyers.

Colyandro will get another pre-trial hearing July 27 but his lawyer, Joe Turner, said they would immediately be appealing this morning's ruling.

Meanwhile, Ellis will return to court Aug. 9 for another hearing before the judge rules in his case.
The follow-up hearings are required because a Travis County grand jury last week re-indicted the pair on the money laundering charges after the defense objected that the original indictment referred to a check instead of cash. The defense lawyers contend the state's money-laundering statute refers only to cash transactions.

It is the second time in as many months that a judge has found the state law constitutional, but the first time a defendant has been ordered to face trial on criminal charges arising from the use of corporate contributions during the 2002 legislative elections.
Colyandro, the political action committee's executive director, also faces trial on 13 counts of unlawfully accepting corporate donations.

During the 2002 elections, Texans for a Republican Majority, a political committee created by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, spent about $600,000 in corporate money on fundraisers and to pay for pollsters and phone banks.

State law generally prohibits spending corporate money on campaign activity, but the defendants' lawyers argue that the corporate money was not used to advocate the election or defeat of any candidates.

Last fall, a Travis County grand jury indicted Colyandro and Ellis, accusing them of laundering $190,000 in corporate donations into campaign contributions to seven GOP House candidates. The defense argued that the indictments should be set aside because money laundering is a cash-only proposition and doesn't apply to the $190,000 corporate check that is photocopied in the indictment.