DeLay Meeting, RNC Actions Coincided

[DoYouEverWonder]

October 7, 2005

Former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) met for at least 30 minutes with the top fundraiser of his Texas political action committee on Oct. 2, 2002, the same day that the Republican National Committee in Washington set in motion a series of financial transactions at the heart of the money-laundering and conspiracy case against DeLay.

During the meeting at his Capitol office, DeLay conferred with James W. Ellis, the head of his principal fundraising committee in Washington and his chief fundraiser in Texas. Ellis had earlier given the Republican National Committee a check for $190,000 drawn mostly from corporate contributions. The same day as the meeting, the RNC ordered $190,000 worth of checks sent to seven Republican legislative candidates in Texas.

<snip>

DeLay and Ellis have so far given slightly different accounts of the substance of their discussion. Ellis's attorney, Jonathan D. Pauerstein, said that Ellis recalls that their Oct. 2 discussion did not concern or involve Texas or Texas candidates. But DeLay, interviewed last weekend on "Fox News Sunday," said that during a "scheduling meeting" with Ellis in October, Ellis said while they were leaving his office that "by the way, we sent money" to Washington

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100601903.html

[havocmom]

1. Hmm, $190,000 in then $190,000 out. Isn't that a wash?

Ooooohh, it's laundering :evilgrin:

[Kagemusha]

2. So DeLay's interviews really were the "new information" re: indictments?

That'd be rich, but has any such thing ever held up in court?

[grytpype]

3. Well, what a co-inky-dink!

By the way, prosecutors win cases like this all the time.

[AlCzervik]

4. I really, really love this story, it gets better with each passing day.

[Kingofalldems]

5. I hope Earle has the emails and

phone records.

[Tight_rope]

6. Looks like DeLay can't keep his lies...oops I mean stories straight!

:spank:

[Tesla]

7. BUSTED!!!

[Judi Lynn]

8. DeLay Meeting, RNC Actions Coincided

DeLay Meeting, RNC Actions Coincided
Financial Transactions Began on Day Texan Met With Fundraiser

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 7, 2005; Page A05

Former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) met for at least 30 minutes with the top fundraiser of his Texas political action committee on Oct. 2, 2002, the same day that the Republican National Committee in Washington set in motion a series of financial transactions at the heart of the money-laundering and conspiracy case against DeLay.

During the meeting at his Capitol office, DeLay conferred with James W. Ellis, the head of his principal fundraising committee in Washington and his chief fundraiser in Texas. Ellis had earlier given the Republican National Committee a check for $190,000 drawn mostly from corporate contributions. The same day as the meeting, the RNC ordered $190,000 worth of checks sent to seven Republican legislative candidates in Texas.

In the past two weeks, two separate Texas grand juries have returned indictments against DeLay, Ellis and a political associate alleging that these transactions amounted to money laundering intended to circumvent a Texas campaign law barring the use of corporate funds for state election purposes. The aim of the alleged scheme was to ensure that Republicans gain control of the Texas House, and thus reorder the state's congressional districts in a manner favoring the election of more Republicans to Congress.

The prosecutor who brought the indictment, Ronnie Earle, has not described the evidence he presented to the grand jury linking DeLay to the $190,000 transactions. But the fact that DeLay and his alleged co-conspirator, fundraiser Ellis, conferred on the same day the checks were ordered has attracted the attention of lawyers involved in the case because of speculation that the two men shared important information that day.
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100601903.html
(Free registration required)

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Can we all say RICO?

So what is the term of the day?

And by the way, if this goes the way it looks even the RNC will be charged in a RICO suit... oh boy

:popcorn:

[fooj]

10. It's Christmas in October!

Peace.

[babylonsister]

13. In more ways than one! nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Now I will know how it feels the night

before Christmas (I'm Jewish) and I have not felt this giddy since... my 10th birthday...

[antonialee839]

32. We need a santa smilie handing out gifts in the lookup table.

[orleans]

11. what is rico?? (i forget) n/t

[NMDemDist2]

12. it's the law they use for the Mob, here's some info and a link

In 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1961-1968. At the time, Congress' goal was to eliminate the ill-affects of organized crime on the nation's economy. To put it bluntly, RICO was intended to destroy the Mafia.

Throughout the 1970's, RICO's intended purpose and its actual use ran parallel to each other. Seldom was RICO used outside of the context of the Mafia, and it is not an overstatement to say that civil claims under RICO were simply not brought.

In the 1980's, however, civil lawyers noticed section 1964(c) of the RICO Act, which allows civil claims to be brought by any person injured in their business or property by reason of a RICO violation. Any person who succeeded in establishing a civil RICO claim would automatically receive judgment in the amount of three times their actual damages and would be awarded their costs and attorneys' fees. The financial windfall available under RICO inspired the creativity of lawyers across the nation, and by the late 1980's, RICO was a (if not the most) commonly asserted claim in federal court. Everyone was trying to depict civil claims, such as common law fraud, product defect, and breach of contract as criminal wrongdoing, which would in turn enable the filing of a civil RICO action.

RICO's broad application was the result of Congress' inclusion of mail and wire fraud as two crimes upon which a RICO claim could be brought. Given the breadth of activities that had historically been criminally prosecuted under the mail and wire fraud statutes, it was not difficult for creative civil attorneys to depict practically any wrongdoing as mail or wire fraud.

http://www.ricoact.com/

[drm604]

31. Interesting info, AZDemDist6.

I wonder if anybody could claim to have been in injured in their business or property due to mail or wire fraud committed by the RNC? Could manipulating the media so as to disseminate fraudulent information be considered wire fraud? How about hacking into voting machines? (Assuming such a thing has occured.) Wouldn't that be wire fraud? Sometimes cases are easier to prove in civil court than they are in criminal court.

[texpatriot2004]

14. I can say RICO

All together now...RICO!

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. RICO

RICO, RICO, RICO ... RICO

[librechik]

24. RICO RICO RICO RICO!!!

[Judi Lynn]

17. DeLay statements raise new questions

Oct. 6, 2005, 11:11PM

DeLay statements raise new questions
His assertions, and his lawyer's, have apparently changed this week
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - Statements by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and his lawyer, as well as documents in a civil lawsuit, raise questions about when he knew a Texas political committee he founded sent $190,000 in corporate money to the Republican National Committee.

The donation is at the center of indictments returned against DeLay on Monday accusing him of conspiracy to violate state election laws, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. DeLay says nothing about the transaction was illegal.

A key point in the case revolves around what DeLay learned at an Oct. 2, 2002, meeting with his political director, Jim Ellis, and what DeLay told Travis County prosecutors this past August.

The indictments allege that the DeLay-founded Texans for a Republican Majority sent corporate money that could not be spent in Texas campaigns to the RNC in exchange for $190,000 in noncorporate donations for seven legislative candidates.

The transaction allegedly was arranged by Ellis, director of DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority, who also has been indicted.TRMPAC sent the check on Sept. 13, 2002. DeLay met with Ellis in Washington on Oct. 2, 2002.

But DeLay and his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, have changed their stories this week about what DeLay knew about the money and when.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3386125
(Free registration required)

[oregonindy]

18. I think its time for the townsfolk to begin getting

the pitchforks and torches ready to storm frankenstiens castle.

[bklyncowgirl]

19. What did the RNC know and when did they know it?

Who, for example, approved this interesting little transfer of funds?

It seems to me it would have had to go pretty high up. I can't imagine that RNC just lets anyone transer money from one account to another.

Inquiring minds want to know.

[xxqqqzme]

22. and just who was RNC

chair in '02? - hmmmmm?...Delay is the center of the whirlpool and many R gonna B sucked in.

[Debi]

29. I believe the name is Terry Nelson

The indictment of Representative Tom DeLay on Wednesday put the Republican National Committee in an uncomfortable spotlight, saying a top political aide to President Bush was the funnel through which $190,000 in improper donations passed in 2002. According to the indictment, Terry Nelson, the political director in the 2004...

NYT article that you have to pay for....here's the link if you really want it
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00C11F939540C7A8EDDA00894DD404482

Why does this interest me?

political director: Terry Nelson, former RNC official, former political director of the National Republican Congressional Committee and former campaign manager for Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa.

http://liberalrepercussion.blogspot.com/2004/03/bush-cheney-2004-arlington-va-advisor.html

Jim Nussle is my cough-cough-cough representative and is running for Governor.

[yellowcanine]

20. Ruh Roh. The Bug Man has some 'splainen to do.

[kentuck]

21. Sounds like Bebe Rebozo ?

and the Watergate bunch under Nixon...

[rmgarrette64]

23. Don't Get Too Excited

Here's my cynical prediction, and I'm afraid it's bad news.

DeLay, or some one else on the Republican side, will find some technical error Earle made - right now, my money is on the film crew that followed him having access to the grand jury. They will threaten suit against either Earle directly, or against the State of Texas (preferred, as it makes bargaining this away easier.)

In return for dropping their suit, the State will drop its suit against DeLay.

I further predict that the negotiations will begin within the next two weeks, and will wrap up in the first week or two of November. You heard it here first - the fix is in.

R. Garrett.

[DoYouEverWonder]

27. Keep dreaming

The film crew just proves that Earle has nothing to hide. They were not allowed access to anything the Grand Jury was doing.

[newyawker99]

30. Hi rmgarrette64!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Judi Lynn]

25. Has Tom DeLay's luck run out?

Has Tom DeLay's luck run out?

Sheldon Alberts
National Post

Friday, October 07, 2005

WASHINGTON - He's known on Capitol Hill as the "Meanest Man in Congress," although nobody has ever been brave enough to call Tom DeLay that to his face.

For the past four years as majority leader in the House of Representatives, the squinty-eyed, pug-nosed Texan has wielded power like a club, punishing Republican colleagues who questioned his ethics and privately threatening Washington lobbyists who dared put Democrats on their payroll.

So fearful are Republicans that when Newsweek magazine profiled the 58-year-old congressional leader this week, not one GOP operative was willing to criticize DeLay on the record.

Not yet anyway, not until they are certain his latest legal woes will render him incapable of exacting revenge.
(snip/...)

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=34f07986-79c4-4db4-ad1d-7bc5275625f2

[calimary]

26. Ellis? James W. Ellis? Hate to be tinfoily but Ellis is a bush family name

if you remember jeb bush, the "e" in "jeb" stands for Ellis. And wasn't there an Ellis at Pox "news" on election night in 2000, who called Florida for bush, and it later came out that he was a bush cousin?

May be nothing, of course, but when I saw that, it made me wonder. These people bring out all the suspicions for me. There seems to be very, very little about them that is strictly on the up-n-up. There's always something murky simmering quietly underneath, always a whiff of a fishy smell in the air around them, wherever they go, whatever they do. I can't help it. When I think of them and their modus operendi, I feel immediately directed to the Dark Side.

[pushycat]

28. I remember the name Ellis in that context also. BFEE are a hydra

with many heads (all with warts too). Others have characterized the Bush family similarly the way you do - just too darn smelly to be legit..