DeLay Asks for Indictment To Be Tossed
The AP’s Suzanne Gamboa is reporting, that “Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s legal team asked a court Friday to throw out his indictment…” Here’s a couple of telling statements from the story:
Prosecutor Ronnie Earle “and his staff engaged in an extraordinarily irregular and desperate attempt to contrive a viable charge and get a substitute indictment of Tom Delay before the expiration of the statute of limitations,” DeLay’s attorney Dick DeGuerin said in a court filing alleging prosecutorial misconduct.
Mr. DeGuerin is exactly right in pointing out Ronnie Earle’s conduct in front of the grand jury. He was focused on one goal & that was to get an indictment so Tom DeLay would have to step down from his Majority Leader position. That’s his biggest mistake thus far. All that the indictment did was get Mr. DeLay’s anger aroused.
Mr. Earle is now facing a Tom DeLay that’s bent on setting things right. Before the indictment, DeLay was complacent. He likely didn’t take Earle seriously until the indictment. That Tom DeLay is gone. Now Earle’s gotta face a man of incredible resources & strength of will. A motivated Tom DeLay vs. Ronnie Earle is a serious mismatch in DeLay’s favor.
Prior to the indictment, DeLay wasn’t attentive to typical Republican ideals of cutting taxes, reducing the size and scope of government and having a strong military. After the indictment, DeLay’s focused like a laser beam on all of those subjects.
DeGuerin alleged that Earle unlawfully participated in grand jury deliberations when he went to a second grand jury last week to seek a second indictment against the Texas Republican. He also said Earle illegally discussed grand jury information and encouraged others to do the same. DeGuerin alleged that Earle turned to the coercion tactics to get the second grand jury to change its decision not to indict DeLay so there would be no public record of a rejection.
When the news broke that DeLay was no-billed by another grand jury a day after getting indicted, everyone in the national media was stunned and I can’t say that I blame them. It isn’t everyday that a DA attempts to browbeat another grand jury into additional indictments to someone the day after he got an indictment on the person.
Cross-posted at BoxerWatch
October 8th, 2005 at 9:32 am
DeLay Wants Charges Dismissed
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s legal team asked a court to throw out his indictment, argui