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DeLay, At His Court Proceedings, Says Democrats Have Not ‘Slowed Me Down One Iota’

DeLay, At His Court Proceedings, Says Democrats Have Not ‘Slowed Me Down One Iota’

By Laylan Copelin, Austin-American Statesman

AUSTIN, Texas — Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, flashing a bit of “The Hammer” persona, returned to court Wednesday to hear oral arguments over his 2010 money laundering and conspiracy convictions.

DeLay, nicknamed “The Hammer” for his combative style in Congress, told reporters he continues to be active in politics behind the scenes after retiring eight years ago because of the felony indictments.

“The Democrats, nor the left, have slowed me down one iota,” said DeLay, flanked by his family and lawyers. “Nothing has changed other than maybe I can get a job.”

Last fall, the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin threw out DeLay’s felony convictions and three-year prison sentence, but Travis County prosecutors are trying to get the state’s highest criminal court to reinstate the 2010 jury verdict. A decision isn’t expected for months.

DeLay’s lawyer, Brian Wice, complained about the “prosecutorial posse” of former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle and his “hand-picked” successor, Rosemary Lehmberg, both Democrats who have pursued the case since 2003.

“There is a fine line between prosecution and persecution, and these folks crossed it a very long time ago,” Wice said.

DeLay’s lawyers have accused Earle of misconduct before, but that allegation has gone nowhere in the courts.

In 2002, DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee traded $190,000 of corporate money, which can’t be given to Texas candidates, for the same amount of legal donations from an arm of the Republican National Committee. The RNC gave its money to seven Texas candidates chosen by DeLay’s committee.

On Wednesday, Travis County prosecutor Holly Taylor told the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that the 3rd Court of Appeals ignored evidence supporting the verdict and failed to defer to the jury’s judgment.

Wice said that DeLay couldn’t be guilty of conspiring to launder money because the corporate donations weren’t illegal.

“You can’t take a series of legal acts and manufacture a crime,” he said. “Unless these (corporate) funds are dirty at the inception, Tom DeLay is not guilty of money laundering.”

Taylor disputed that, saying the corporations gave the money knowing that it would help elect DeLay’s choice of candidates.

“This is a big criminal scheme based on illegal acts,” she said.

In 2002, the political landscape in Texas was very different from today’s Republican dominance.

Despite DeLay’s power in Congress, his political committee was having trouble raising legal donations in Texas because Austin-based lobbyists didn’t want to offend Texas House Speaker Pete Laney, the last powerful Democratic leader in Austin.

DeLay’s associates turned to raising money from national and out-of-state corporations that had business before Congress.

Under state law, corporations couldn’t give directly to Texas candidates, but they could cover the administrative overhead of political action committees such as Texans for a Republican Majority.

The committee, however, had no office or other overhead except salaries for political consultants or polling expenses.

In the final weeks of the campaign, DeLay’s committee had a surplus of corporate money that was about to go unspent. That’s when DeLay’s associates negotiated the $190,000 swap with the RNC.

On Wednesday, several judges focused on whether the corporate donations were “criminal proceeds” necessary in a money laundering case. They cited the testimony of several corporate donors who testified they didn’t intend to violate Texas law.

Taylor dismissed the testimony as self-serving, noting that DeLay’s committee told the donors how it would spend money, including one brochure that said: “Rather than just paying for overhead, your support will fund a series of productive and innovative activities designed to increase our level of engagement in the political arena.”

Photo: Jimmy Bramlett via Flickr

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This Week In Crazy: God Wrote The Constitution, And The Rest Of The Worst Of The Right

This Week In Crazy: God Wrote The Constitution, And The Rest Of The Worst Of The Right

Welcome to “This Week In Crazy,” The National Memo’s weekly update on the wildest attacks, conspiracy theories, and other loony behavior from the perpetually unhinged right wing. Starting our countdown:

5. Operation American Spring

Screenshot: YouTube

Screenshot: YouTube

Operation American Spring, the revolutionary group dedicated to removing the “despotic and tyrannical federal leadership” from office, makes a return appearance to our list this week after “winning” the coveted number one spot last time.

These self-styled patriots have a big day ahead of them on Friday as they make their way to Washington, D.C. to carry out their coup against the federal government.

A leader of the group, retired Army colonel Harry Riley, said, “We are calling for the removal of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, and Eric Holder as a start toward constitutional restoration.” Their objective is simple — to preserve the very existence of America and restore our country to its free citizens by removing the “greedy, self-serving occupant[s] of the White House or Congress” and “removing the flea infestation that is sucking the blood out of America.”

Riley is optimistic that he’ll get a decent showing for the coup d’état on Friday. “We have well over 1 million militia members mobilizing; bikers, truckers, hunters, Tea Party groups—citizens across America. No, I don’t think 10 million [participants] is high at all.”

It gets crazier: Another right-wing blogger warned other patriots that Friday’s protest is itself a nefarious plot. David Chase Taylor wrote, “In essence, ‘Operation American Spring’ is a trap to set up well-meaning ‘patriots’ [his scare quotes] for acts of state-sponsored terror so that Obama’s political opposition can be vilified and a civil war can commence.”

Taylor continued: “It is during one or both of these seemingly harmless events that a state-sponsored coup d’état and/or terror attacks will likely take place. Although terror plots are always subject to change, most likely target is Washington, D.C., namely the Obama White House and the Washington Monument.”

Feeling inspired yet? Watch here for more, via Operation American Spring’s YouTube:

H/t: RawStory

4. Louie Gohmert

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

This Week In Crazy veteran Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) makes the cut yet again.

Speaking on the House floor, Gohmert preached against the “intellectual fascism” plaguing American society. “Now, with this new intellectual fascism that has arisen in our universities, some of them — far too many of them, actually — say: ‘If you disagree with our position, we don’t want you here. We want you eliminated. We don’t want you to have work. We want your family defiled. We just don’t want you to succeed in any way whatsoever.”

Gohmert was furious over two recent instances where he believes liberals used the same discriminatory policies characteristic of Nazism: Brandeis University’s decision to rescind an honorary degree before awarding it to former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, owing to her remarks bashing Islam and Muslims; and the cancelation of HGTV’s Flip It Forward in a backlash against anti-gay statements by its hosts, David and Jason Benham.

“We stand up for those things, but there is no hate for individuals, yet those who are the most hate-filled, who do not follow the teachings of Jesus, seek to impose or to project upon those of us who are Christians–and some orthodox Jews and even atheists or secularists like Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali —their own hate, their own intolerance,” said Gohmert. “We really need to understand what is going on.” Then he continued:

It is not tolerance that becomes intolerant and says a woman who was tortured — I don’t know what else you would call some of the procedures that were done to her most private areas in the name of religion. It was not voluntary. She was ordered into a marriage she wanted no part of. She did not want to have to be covered up and stay in a back room and never own property and never drive. She kind of thought, like most of us do in America — except for the intolerant fascist liberals – that, ‘Gee, women ought to be able to own property, we ought to be able to marry whom we wish, we ought to be able to espouse our own views without being called hatemongers.’

See it for yourself, via The Raw Story:

H/t: The Raw Story

3. Sean Hannity

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Fox News Channel and syndicated radio host Sean Hannity announced on Thursday that he will fulfill his promise to pack up his Long Island home and leave the state of New York.

Hannity made the threat in January after New York governor Andrew Andrew Cuomo (D) said in a radio interview that “extreme conservatives, who are right-to-life, pro-assault weapon, anti-gay… have no place in the state of New York.”

“I can’t wait to get out of here. I really can’t,” Hannity responded. “I don’t want to pay their 10 percent state tax anymore. I live in the second-highest property-taxed county in the entire country in Nassau County. I can’t wait to sell my house to somebody who wants it. I can’t wait to pay no state income tax down in Florida or Texas.”

He ended his temper tantrum by promising: “Gov. Cuomo, I’m going to leave and I’m taking all of my money with me – every single solitary penny.” 

Hannity continued this tirade for months, insisting he was a victim of Cuomo’s intolerant views. The conclusion came on Thursday, during an interview with Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), when Hannity  announced, “I’m going to Florida, and I’m going to get a little Texas ranch. I’ve decided I’m leaving New York when my kid graduates high school.”

2. Tom DeLay

Photo: Jimmy Bramlett via Flickr

Photo: Jimmy Bramlett via Flickr

This week’s runner-up award goes to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). Earlier this year, DeLay explained who he believes actually wrote the U.S. Constitution — God.  DeLay said in an interview that the American people seemed to have forgotten “that God created this nation [and] that He wrote the Constitution, that it’s based on Biblical principles.”

The former House Republican boss, an unsavory figure known as “The Hammer” in his heyday, returned to this religious revelation on Wednesday, when he called for “a revolution for the Constitution.” DeLay said, “The Consitution was created by God. I got attacked just a few weeks ago by the left because I said God wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and they ripped me to shreds over that one.”

The radio interviewer quickly added: “They need to read some of the founders’ quotes and how they said you could see the figure of God in what happened.”

DeLay agreed: “Alexander Hamilton himself said that the Declaration and the Constitution were written as with a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature by the hand of divinity itself. So I’m just quoting him.” 

While Hamilton did in fact make that statement, notice that it doesn’t refer directly to the founding documents. That’s because he penned those words in The Farmer Refuted in February 1775 — a full 12 years before the Constitution was drafted and a year before the founders penned the Declaration of Independence.

Listen to DeLay’s remarks here, via Right Wing Watch: 

[sound width=”166″ height=”100″ id=”https://soundcloud.com/rightwingwatch/tom-delay-defends-himself-by-spreading-false-history”]

H/t: Right Wing Watch

1. Joel Gilbert

This week’s “winner” is right-wing activist and producer Joel Gilbert — for his new film There’s No Place Like Utopia.

Gilbert’s latest movie is a bizarre reworking of The Wizard of Oz, in which President Obama brings Communism to the U.S. by introducing social welfare programs and immigration.

Watch the trailer here, via Right Wing Watch:

In the movie, Gilbert interviews far-right authors including Jack Cashill, Dr. Jerome Corsi, and David Horowitz.

According to its website, “There’s No Place Like Utopia is a humorous and horrifying exploration of Progressivism, amnesty for illegals, race relations, Islam in America, political correctness, and Barack Obama himself, who promises to ‘remake the world as it should be’.” 

Gilbert’s first movie, Dreams from My Real Father, aims to convince viewers that President Obama’s actual father was a former Communist Party activist named Frank Marshall Davis — and that he tried covering up this embarrassing fact by getting a nose job. 

H/t: Right Wing Watch

Screenshot: YouTube

Check out previous editions of This Week In Crazy here. Think we missed something? Let us know in the comments!

Texas’ Highest Criminal Court To Hear Tom DeLay Money-Laundering Case

Texas’ Highest Criminal Court To Hear Tom DeLay Money-Laundering Case

By Laylan Copelin, Austin American-Statesman

AUSTIN, Texas — Tom DeLay’s legal saga will have at least one more chapter.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday agreed to hear the money-laundering and conspiracy charges that ended the political career of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom “The Hammer” DeLay eight years ago.

Last fall, the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin dismissed DeLay’s conviction and three-year prison sentence, saying prosecutors used “legally insufficient evidence” at DeLay’s 2010 trial before a Travis County jury. The vote in favor of the Sugar Land Republican was 2-1, along partisan lines.

Travis County prosecutors appealed that decision. On Wednesday, the state’s highest criminal court agreed to hear the case.

Brian Wice, DeLay’s appellate lawyer, had hoped to persuade the Court of Criminal Appeals to reject the state’s appeal.

“We’re not surprised that the state’s highest criminal court wants to hear a case as important as Tom’s is,” Wice said Wednesday. “We’re confident.”

Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said, “I continue to believe that the jury’s verdict was correct. I am pleased and confident that the court will give us fair consideration.”

The long-running case dates back to a $190,000 transaction during the 2002 elections when DeLay and his allies were trying to elect a GOP majority to the Texas Legislature that, in turn, would draw congressional districts more favorable to the GOP.

Under state law, corporations can give money for the overhead expenses of a political action committee but not to a candidate.

Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee led by DeLay, exchanged $190,000 of its corporate donations for the same amount from an arm of the Republican National Committee. The national committee’s $190,000, which were legal donations from a separate bank account, went to seven Texas candidates.

The issue is whether the transaction was money laundering or not.

Writing for the majority, 3rd Court Justice Melissa Goodwin said prosecutors failed to prove the $190,000 was “proceeds of criminal activity.”

She noted that the jury asked whether the $190,000 was “illegal at the start of the transaction” or “procured by illegal means originally.”

Goodwin said prosecutors didn’t prove that point — which she said was a critical element to conspiring to launder money — and the trial judge never answered the jurors’ questions. Instead, he referred them to the jury charge.

Holly Taylor, an assistant district attorney, argued that the 3rd Court of Appeals was wrong to throw out DeLay’s conviction.

She wrote in her appeal that the 3rd Court substituted its judgment for that of the jury with regard to the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of the evidence.

Taylor also disputed that the prosecutors had to show that the transaction involved the “very same dollars that were the direct profits of the felonious act.”

Finally, she wrote that the prosecutors shouldn’t have to prove that “the elements of money laundering were completed” in order to prove a conspiracy occurred.

Wice argued that if the state didn’t prove money laundering, it had insufficient evidence for a conspiracy conviction.

He also dismissed the lengthy prosecution as a “purely partisan pursuit.”

Photo: Jimmy Bramlett via Flickr