Judicial Watch wants federal investigation of DeLay’s TRMPAC
Associated Press3/24/04
AUSTIN - A conservative public interest group has asked the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate possible money laundering in the 2002 Texas legislative races.
Judicial Watch, which investigates political corruption and abuses of power, asked U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton to investigate widely published reports of the Travis County district attorney's investigation into campaign finance activities during the legislative races.
Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee created by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, is being investigated for allegedly using corporate money to influence the 2002 election, in which Republicans took control of the Texas Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. It is illegal in Texas to use corporate money to influence legislative races.
Republicans have dismissed the investigation as a partisan witch hunt by Democratic District Attorney Ronnie Earle.
Russell Verney, director of the Judicial Watch Southwestern Region, said the activities may have been orchestrated to "subvert Texas law."
"Laundering campaign money through the Republican National Committee would defraud the public and violate state election laws," Verney said. "Because this transaction occurred between entities in the state of Texas and the District of Columbia, there is a potential that federal laws regarding mail fraud and money laundering were willfully and knowingly violated."