Feds Lift Cloud Over Tom DeLay Just In Time For State Trial

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/eyeon2010/2010/08/feds-lift-cloud-over-tom-delay.html


Feds Lift Cloud Over Tom DeLay Just In Time For State Trial

By CQ-Roll Call Staff | August 16, 2010 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)


When Democrats campaigned for Congress on a promise to "drain the swamp," they had a lot of examples to point to, such as Republicans Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Bob Ney, who ended up behind bars, and Mark Foley, who left public life in disgrace. But there was no bigger symbol for the excesses of power than former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who left Congress under the cloud of a two-track criminal investigation.

POLITICO's Mike Allen reports today that the federal government has closed its case against DeLay.

Allen writes that the Justice Department informed DeLay last week " that the government has ended a six-year investigation of his ties to the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to DeLay's lead counsel in the matter, Richard Cullen, chairman of McGuireWoods."

"The investigation lasted through two presidents and four attorneys general. Its demise provides a stark footnote to the lobbying scandals that helped Democrats regain the House majority they held for 40 years and lost in the Republican revolution of 1994, which eventually made the pugnacious DeLay one of Washington's top power brokers."

A state-level trial scheduled expected next spring in Texas and a pre-trial hearing in the case is set for Aug. 24, Allen reports.

-- Katherine Rizzo

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. DeLay is a two-bit criminal and Mike Allen at Politico is a lying right wing

media asshole.

[gratuitous]

2. So, what will be a just sentence?

I mean, that appearance of his on Dancing With the Stars . . . let's just say I'm against the death penalty as a general rule.