FW Star-Telegram: Land deal gets new scrutiny

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday that he wants to probe a land-condemnation proceeding in 1999 that awarded Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers more than $100,000 for a half-acre of family-owned land in Dallas.

Bush resists requests on Miers' work

By JAMES KUHNHENN
October 25, 2005.

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday that he wants to probe a land-condemnation proceeding in 1999 that awarded Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers more than $100,000 for a half-acre of family-owned land in Dallas.

The amount, more than 10 times the land's market value, was determined by a three-person panel that included a close associate of Miers' and that was appointed by a judge who had received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from her law firm. The transaction was described in a Star-Telegram story Sunday.

"The story contained some allegations that I think require investigation," said Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

The land deal added a new wrinkle to a nomination that appeared Monday to put President Bush on a collision course with Senate Democrats and Republicans over the release of documentation about Miers' work as White House counsel.

Providing such documents, Bush said Monday, "would make it impossible for me and other presidents to be able to make sound decisions."

"In other words, they've asked for paperwork about the decision-making process, what her recommendations were," Bush said. "And that would breach very important confidentiality, and it's a red line I'm not willing to cross."

Specter said he was willing to limit his request to a description of the issues Miers handled at the White House, not details of her advice on those topics.

He said that even a list of subjects would help the Senate determine what legal cases Miers might have to decline to hear if she were to become a Supreme Court justice.

"We're very mindful of executive privilege," Specter said.

"If you take, say, advice that Ms. Miers gave the president on his constitutional authority to hold detainees in Guantanamo, that would be executive privilege. If on the other hand you want to know if she gave him advice on Guantanamo, that would not be executive privilege."

Miers also took another hit from conservative critics Monday, who launched a Web site called WithdrawMiers.org, calling on her to step aside and let Bush nominate a proven conservative to the court.

The land transaction in West Dallas also attracted interest from watchdog groups.

"I think it raises questions that need to be looked into," said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice.

"Miers apparently got paid a heck of a lot more than the property was worth, and it is valid to ask the question how and why."

Russell Verney, Dallas director of Judicial Watch, a conservative public-interest law group, said he expects the committee to pay special attention to the condemnation proceeding and other private transactions because of Miers' lack of a judicial record.

"I think we can anticipate that the Senate confirmation hearings will be radically different than for any other recent nominee," he said.

Lobby Watch:In Gay-Marital Amendment Spat, Tolerant Give More Than Intolerant

Eight political committees seeking to influence a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages reported that they had raised more than $500,000 one month before the November 8 election. PACs opposing the amendment raised more than three times the amount reported by PACs supporting "Proposition 2."
Read the Lobby Watch

Texas Observer: Tommy and the $190,000

What could turn out to be the most important meeting in Tom DeLay’s career started at 10:15 a.m. on October 2, 2002. The Sugar Land Republican who was then U.S. House majority leader met that morning for 30 minutes in his Capitol office with his top campaign aide, Jim Ellis. Read the article at the Texas Observer.

Tommy and the $190,000: The tale of the money transfer that toppled the House majority leader

Jake Bernstein | October 21, 2005 | Capitol Offense

What could turn out to be the most important meeting in Tom DeLay’s career started at 10:15 a.m. on October 2, 2002. The Sugar Land Republican who was then U.S. House majority leader met that morning for 30 minutes in his Capitol office with his top campaign aide, Jim Ellis. Ellis is executive director of DeLay’s leadership PAC, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC). Both men are currently under indictment for the alleged laundering of $190,000 in corporate money. The allegation is a simple one. A local ARMPAC clone called Texans for a Republican Majority had raised $190,000 in corporate money it could not legally spend on Texas political candidates. It sent the money to the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C. The RNC, following specific instructions from Ellis as to the recipients and the amounts, sent back a total of $190,000 to seven candidates for the statehouse in money that could be spent legally. According to the allegations, the entire operation existed to circumvent Texas campaign laws.

October 2 was a key date in the story of that $190,000. The importance of the meeting, first reported in the Houston Chronicle, is underscored by the fact that DeLay and Ellis cannot seem to get their stories straight about what happened during it. Ellis’ lawyer, J.D. Pauerstein, claims that the $190,000 was not discussed at the meeting. He also says that Ellis has not testified before the grand jury nor have any of his documents been subpoenaed. DeLay, talking about the case on Fox News Sunday on October 7, 2005, described it as a “scheduling meeting.” According to DeLay, as the two men were leaving the office, Ellis remarked, “by the way, we sent money.” Speaking with Wolf Blitzer on CNN on October 3, 2005, DeLay said, “I didn’t know they did this legal activity with the Republican National State Election Committee. I did not know who they had targeted. I did not know where the money went. I had nothing to do with the day-to-day operation of TRMPAC.”

But documents from a separate civil trial involving TRMPAC indicate that DeLay was actively involved in the political action committee he created. The majority leader participated in a number of conference calls about the PAC’s activities, raised money for the effort, received corporate checks for TRMPAC, and traveled to Texas and Virginia to attend fund-raising events.

The first public documentation of the saga of the $190,000 appeared on Tuesday, September 10, 2002. On that date, John Colyandro sent an e-mail to TRMPAC accountant Russell Anderson. The e-mail asked Anderson to Fed-Ex overnight a blank check to Jim Ellis in Washington, D.C. “Needs to arrive tomorrow,” wrote Colyandro. (In a civil deposition a year later, Colyandro cited a pending meeting between Ellis and the RNC as the need for urgency.)

Three days after Colyandro sent that first e-mail message, Jim Ellis—“the decision-maker on the PAC,” according to TRMPAC treasurer Bill Ceverha—met with RNC officials, including its political director, Terry Nelson (see Andrew Wheat’s column, page 13 of this issue). Ellis had filled in the check for the amount of $190,000. It was the largest single expenditure TRMPAC ever made.

Ellis gave the check to Nelson along with “a document that contained the names of candidates for the Texas House of Representatives and amounts to be contributed to each of the said candidates,” according to the indictment. Whether that document still exists is an open question. It has never been released to the public.

TRMPAC officials then turned their attention to planning a fund-raiser to be headlined by Marc Racicot, the RNC chairman. On September 18, 2002, Colyandro sent an e-mail to Ellis and others confirming a “reception/dinner” in Houston for the beginning of October.

On September 20, the TRMPAC check for $190,000 was deposited in the nonfederal section of the RNC, known as the Republican National State Election Committee (RNSEC), in an account designated for corporate money. On September 26, Colyandro had another exchange with Anderson about the check, which further buttresses the theory that DeLay knew about it. Colyandro was planning a trip to Washington, D.C., to show the PAC’s disclosure reports to the TRMPAC board, of which DeLay was the most prominent member. Anderson couldn’t complete the report without more information, a point he emphasized with capital letters. “I NEED THE DETAILS ON THE 190,000 CHECK WRITTEN BY JIM ELLIS TO THE RNC,” he e-mailed back to Colyandro. It’s unclear whether Colyandro ever made the trip.

Six days later, Ellis had his fateful meeting with DeLay. At this point, they were just a month out from the election. In order for money to have an impact, they needed it right away. They had delivered the check to the RNC almost three weeks before. Why the hold-up, if this was a straight transaction, as the indictment and the evidence seems to suggest? One possible answer is bureaucracy. Jay Banning, director of administration for the RNC, testified in the civil case that the RNC legal division reviews “all such transactions.” Another, more intriguing possibility, is that someone at the RNC had qualms about the plan.

It’s unknown whether DeLay and Ellis called anyone at the RNC that morning of October 2. The very next day, Marc Racicot was flying to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for an RNC finance meeting. The day after that, his schedule had him flying to Houston for a TRMPAC fund-raiser. His schedule reads: “Dinner FR for Tom DeLay’s PAC.” What is known is that at some point on October 2, the RNC drafted memorandums for seven unusual checks to Texas candidates.

On October 3, the RNC cut seven sequential checks numbered from 7470 to 7476 to Texas state representatives. Four of the checks were for $20,000. Two of the checks were for $35,000. The largest check, for $40,000, was for Glenda Dawson. Together they totaled $190,000. RNSEC did cut checks for other Texas legislative candidates during that period. Not one, however, was for more than $500.

It’s understandable why the RNC would not give larger contributions. According to Bloomberg News, outside of the Texas 7, the RNC did not give more than $2,000 to any single state legislative candidate anywhere in the United States. In 2002, Democrats held the U.S. Senate by one vote. There were contested Senate races all over the country. Why would the RNC divert its resources to a Texas legislature that was already largely controlled by Republicans?

In John Colyandro’s deposition in the civil trial, he explained TRMPAC’s decision to give almost $200,000 to the RNC. Colyandro claimed that TRMPAC had all along budgeted $200,000 for party building. “We initially wanted it to stay in Texas, but then at which point they were fully funded, it went to the Republican National Committee for similar activities,” he testified.

However, in the weeks after the $190,000 came back to Texas, TRMPAC’s corporate fund-raiser, Warren RoBold, was sending out urgent e-mails begging for money. In one, he wrote, “I have raised 40% of the dollars that TRMPAC needs [in] the final weeks. We still need $125,000 of Corporate funds to finish the project and pay our obligations. The House is looking good. But we take nothing for granted. We want to get to 84-95 Texas State House seats and insure [sic] the election of the first Republican Speaker in the State’s history.”

It would take two years for the 2002 campaign to catch up with Colyandro and Ellis. On September 21, 2004, a Travis County grand jury delivered first-degree felony indictments for money laundering against the two men. Almost a year after that, another grand jury re-indicted Colyandro and Ellis and, for the first time, indicted DeLay on criminal conspiracy charges over the $190,000. (Six days later, prosecutors subsequently re-indicted DeLay.) The original indictment forced DeLay to step down as House majority leader—he hopes temporarily. Money laundering is a first-degree felony punishable by five years of probation to life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Conspiracy to commit money laundering is a second-degree felony punishable by 2 years of probation to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Those involved in the money transfer insist it was perfectly legal. There is nothing wrong with sending corporate money to the RNC, and there is nothing wrong with sending hard money to Texas candidates. The contention is that these were two separate, unrelated events. But that theory is proving a hard sell. District Judge Joe Hart, ruling in a civil case against TRMPAC’s treasurer Bill Ceverha, rejected it and factored the $190,000 into his damage awards. The burden of proof in a criminal case is higher. Despite their insistence that everything was aboveboard, participants in the transfer, especially Tom DeLay, appear eager to put themselves as far away from the scene of the alleged crime as possible.

Lobby Watch:Miers’ Locke Liddell Is an Activist In Texas’ GOP, Corporate State

Many of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’ personal views are unknown but her law firm of 28 years does have a track record. Locke Liddell & Sapp’s campaign contributions, lobby clients and ties to political scandals mark this firm as a political activist that helped shape Texas’ corporate, Republican state.
Read the Lobby Watch

DeLay is Indicted on Two New Charges

A Travis County Grand Jury re-indicted Tom DeLay yesterday on money laundering charges stemming from the 2002 Texas elections. The new indictment charges DeLay with both first-degree and second-degree felonies. These are much more serious charges than the indictment of September 28. A first-degree felony is punishable by 5 years probation to life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. A second-degree felony is punishable by 2 years probation to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Read the Indictment

LA Times: DeLay Is Indicted Again; Charges Are Graver

Six days after Rep. Tom DeLay's indictment on conspiracy charges, a new Texas grand jury issued another indictment Monday charging him with the far more serious crime of money-laundering — a first-degree felony that could bring a lengthy prison term.

The former House majority leader faces money-laundering counts. Once more, he excoriates the Texas prosecutor.

By Scott Gold, Times Staff Writer
October 4, 2005

HOUSTON — Six days after Rep. Tom DeLay's indictment on conspiracy charges, a new Texas grand jury issued another indictment Monday charging him with the far more serious crime of money-laundering — a first-degree felony that could bring a lengthy prison term.

Under the internal rules of the Republican Party, the conspiracy indictment had forced the Texas congressman to step down from his position as House majority leader. That charge, a fourth-degree felony punishable by a state prison term of two years, came after a wide-ranging probe into allegations that DeLay and his lieutenants had hijacked Texas elections by illegally funneling corporate money into the bank accounts of Republican state candidates.

DeLay has been defiant ever since, saying the charge was the result of a political vendetta and vowing that he would soon be vindicated and reassume his position as a premier power-broker on Capitol Hill.

But Monday, a second grand jury issued an indictment charging DeLay with conspiracy to commit money-laundering, a second-degree felony, and money-laundering, a first-degree felony.

Combined, the charges could bring a life prison term. Although such stiff punishment is virtually unheard of in cases of political wrongdoing, "this is serious stuff," said University of Texas law professor George E. Dix. "They have obviously upped the ante."

There was considerable disagreement over the meaning and the import of the latest indictment.

The new grand jury was only impaneled at noon on Monday, which means Texas prosecutors were able to persuade its members to issue the more serious charges in a matter of hours.

Craig McDonald, director of the Austin-based Texans for Public Justice — a group that tries to fight the influence of money in politics — said the speed of the indictment could be evidence that the case is "pretty cut and dry."

"The crime is simple," he said. "Perhaps the evidence is simple too."

But DeLay called the charges another example of "prosecutorial abuse" on the part of Travis County Dist. Atty. Ronald Earle, who is leading the investigation.

"He is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a 'do-over,' since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate," DeLay said. "This is an abomination of justice."

Earle, a Democrat, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's lawyer, pointed out Monday night that the new charges came shortly after he filed court papers in Austin insisting that the first indictment was so flawed that it should be thrown out. In that motion, DeGuerin argued that the original conspiracy charge was based on a law that didn't exist in 2002, when the alleged financial wrongdoing took place.

"He rushed in front of a new grand jury," DeGuerin said. "I think Ronnie Earle and his crew spent some sleepless nights in the past few days…. It's like a bunch of Keystone Kops running around up there."

Dix pointed out that although the indictments overlap in several areas, there are critical differences.

Both focus on a single financial transaction — a $190,000 check that was written to the Republican National Committee in Washington by Austin-based Texans for a Republican Majority, which DeLay founded in 2001. The money, collected from corporations nationwide, was distributed to seven legislative candidates in Texas, although GOP attorneys say the money came from a different account.

The first indictment appears to focus on the effort by DeLay's political action committee to collect the corporate donations and funnel them to the RNC.

The new one focuses on the back end of that transaction, when the RNC distributed money to the legislative candidates. It appears to place the alleged offenses within a three-year statute of limitations by saying that they occurred between Sept. 6, 2002, and Oct. 4, 2004.

"My judgment is that simply because a prosecutor decides that one approach is more effective than another doesn't necessarily suggest some major weakness … or anything other than a continuing effort to adjust the case to what appears to be the most favorable theory," Dix said.

All sides agree that more than $600,000 donated by corporations was used in the 2002 elections, although there is disagreement about whether that was legal.

Texas law bans the use of corporate contributions for direct campaigning, but it allows candidates to use such money for administrative costs. That traditionally has been interpreted as overhead costs, such as electric bills at a campaign office. DeLay's fundraisers were far more aggressive, using the money to pay for such items as phone banks.

The money from the RNC helped fuel a political takeover in which the Republican Party, long the minority in Texas, gained control over the governor's mansion and both houses of the Legislature for the first time in 130 years.

At DeLay's urging, Republican leaders seized upon their new clout to redraw congressional maps that were friendly to their allies.

The move was so controversial that Democrats, under cover of darkness, fled the Texas capital in protest — causing Republicans to send the Texas Rangers after them.

In the 2004 elections, the new congressional districts gave the GOP a six-seat majority in the state's congressional delegation. The gains helped cement the GOP's control of Congress.

Washington Post: DeLay Is Indicted on Two New Charges

A Texas grand jury indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday for alleged involvement in money laundering related to the 2002 Texas election, raising new and more serious allegations than the conspiracy charge lodged against the former House majority leader last week.

Money Laundering Alleged in Texas

By R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post
Tuesday, October 4, 2005; A01

A Texas grand jury indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday for alleged involvement in money laundering related to the 2002 Texas election, raising new and more serious allegations than the conspiracy charge lodged against the former House majority leader last week.

The surprising new indictments followed by a matter of hours a motion by DeLay's Texas legal defense team to quash last week's charge on grounds that the Texas prosecutor in charge of the case lacked authority to bring it. The lawyers alleged that the crime of conspiracy was not covered by the state election law at the time of the alleged violation.

Later on Monday, a different grand jury -- which had no prior involvement in the case -- brought the new charges, which roughly match allegations made against two of DeLay's political associates one year ago.

DeLay, who had earlier accused the prosecutor -- Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle -- of partisan zealotry, promptly issued a statement accusing him of stooping "to a new low with his brand of prosecutorial abuse." DeLay said Earle "is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a 'do-over' since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate." The congressman added: "This is an abomination of justice."

One count of the new indictment accuses DeLay of conspiracy to commit money laundering. It says he agreed with one or more associates to launder $190,000 in corporate contributions through an arm of the Republican National Committee in Washington, allowing the funds to be passed illegally into the election campaigns of Republican candidates in Texas. Texas law prohibits the use of corporate money in political campaigns.

The aim of the assistance was to ensure that Republicans could gain control of the Texas House, and thus reorder the state's congressional districts in a manner that would favor the election of Republicans. The stratagem worked: Five more Republicans were elected to the U.S. House from the state last year, making it harder for Democrats to wrest control of Congress.

The other new count alleges that DeLay and the two associates "did knowingly, conduct, supervise, and facilitate" the transfer of the $190,000 to Washington and back to Texas in violation of the state's money-laundering statutes. Last week's conspiracy charge, in contrast, involved the state's election law, and it was that linkage that DeLay's attorneys challenged.

Earle, who spoke to reporters after last week's action, did not explain his decision to present his case to a new grand jury on the first day it met. DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden said that Earle's action came after he "panicked" after realizing his error in bringing last week's charges.

But a source close to the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he lacks authority to speak publicly, responded by noting that Earle told reporters last week his investigation was continuing, and asserting that Earle had intended to bring these charges even before the challenge raised by DeLay's lawyers.

Whatever the reason, the potential consequences for DeLay are more dire. Both money-laundering crimes are more serious felonies, and the maximum punishment is life in prison. DeLay has been forced by House rules to relinquish his post as majority leader, and the new indictments stand in the way of any quick reinstatement based on any legal flaws in last week's indictment.

Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), called the new indictments "yet another example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption and cronyism at the expense of the American people."

DeLay has said his resignation as majority leader is temporary and vowed to continue to exercise influence over the House through his close ties to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and other leaders. Some moderate Republicans, however, have questioned whether he should be allowed to return to power.

The sequence of Monday's events make clear that neither side is prepared to back down from confrontation. Around noon on Monday, DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin had written in a letter to Earle that "I request . . . you immediately agree to dismiss this indictment so that the political consequences can be reversed." The response, from Earle, was instead to expand the allegations.

The backdrop for yesterday's action may have been a dispute over the continued viability of a waiver of the three-year statute of limitations that DeLay granted in writing on Sept. 12, in order to keep trying to persuade Earle not to issue any indictments. After last week's conspiracy charge, DeGuerin said the waiver was withdrawn.

Yesterday's indictments maintained the waiver was still in effect. But DeGuerin said in an interview that Earle may have brought the new charges so speedily because he was uncertain of his ground on that issue. A key transaction in the alleged conspiracy -- the payment of $190,000 by the RNC to the Texas Republican candidates -- occurred on Oct. 4, 2002, or three years ago today.

That means that if the waiver is no longer in effect, the new charges had to be brought quickly. "I think they were losing sleep about this over the weekend," DeGuerin said.

DeGuerin reiterated yesterday that DeLay was unaware of the transactions involving $190,000 before they occurred and learned about them only weeks afterward. But Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, said that "for a new grand jury to indict DeLay on a day's notice suggests the evidence of his participation is convincing."

TPJ Statement on Tom DeLay's Criminal Indictment

On March 31, 2003, Texans for Public Justice (TPJ) filed a formal complaint with the Travis County District Attorney requesting an investigation into what appeared to be unlawful uses of corporate funds by Congressman Tom DeLay’s Texans for Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC) to influence Texas’ 2002 legislative elections. Today a Travis County Grand Jury charged DeLay with criminally conspiring with TRMPAC.

TPJ Statement on Tom DeLay's Criminal Indictment

For Immediate Release:	For More Information Contact:
September 28, 2005	Craig McDonald, 512-472-9770

Austin, TX: On March 31, 2003, Texans for Public Justice (TPJ) filed a formal complaint with the Travis County District Attorney requesting an investigation into what appeared to be unlawful uses of corporate funds by Congressman Tom DeLay’s Texans for Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC) to influence Texas’ 2002 legislative elections. Today a Travis County Grand Jury charged DeLay with criminally conspiring with TRMPAC.

“No jury can undo the outcome of Texas’ 2002 elections,” said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald, “but the justice system must punish those who criminally conspire to undermine democracy--no matter how powerful they may be. If we are to be a ‘democracy,’ then powerful politicians cannot flout such laws with impunity.”

“We applaud the District Attorney’s office for unraveling what appears to be a complex conspiracy to hijack Texas elections. These criminal prosecutions send the message that nobody is above Texas law.”

“As criminal indictments pile up, we believe that Washington and Austin both are in need of a good House cleaning to restore integrity. Because of his own close involvement with TRMPAC, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick should resign his leadership post. If he will not, we call on House members to install a speaker untainted by the TRMPAC scandal.”

Read Earle's Statement

Read the Indictment

Lobby Watch:25 Texans Lobbied In 2002 for Multiple TAB Donors

Recent criminal indictments accuse the Texas Association of Business (TAB) of illegally influencing Texas’ 2002 elections with almost $1.7 million in corporate funds. Of the 30 corporations that funded this alleged crime, 25 spent up to $6.3 million that year to take out 182 Texas lobby contracts.
Read the Lobby Watch

Texas PACs Set New Spending Record

Business interests dominated the $69 million spent by Texas PACs in the 2004-election cycle, a record amount in a non-gubernatorial year. Texans for Lawsuit Reform overtook the Texas Democratic Party as the state's largest PAC. TPJ's biennial analysis of Texas PAC spending, including a list of the 100 biggest PACs, is now available.

Read the media release and the full report.