Tom DeLay Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison
AUSTIN, Texas — Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, once considered among the nation's most powerful and feared lawmakers, was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for a scheme to influence elections that already cost him his job, leadership post and millions of dollars in legal fees.
The sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay, a Houston-area Republican, on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering for using a political action committee to illegally send corporate donations to Texas House candidates in 2002.
Prosecutors said DeLay will likely be free for months or even years as his appeal makes it through the Texas court system.
Before being sentenced, DeLay repeated his longstanding claims that he did nothing wrong, the prosecution was politically motivated and that he never intended to break the law. DeLay was convicted in Travis County, one of the most Democratic counties in Texas, which is one of the most Republican states in the country.
"I can't be remorseful for something I don't think I did," DeLay said in a 10-minute speech to the judge.
DeLay told Senior Judge Pat Priest the "selective prosecution" he's gone through has deeply affected his wife's health, forced him to raise and spend $10 million in legal fees and cost him everything he has worked for – including the second-highest post in the U.S. House.
"This criminalization of politics is very dangerous. It's dangerous to our system. Just because somebody disagrees with you they got to put you in jail, bankrupt you, destroy your family," he said.
Priest sentenced him to the three-year term on the conspiracy charge. He also sentenced him to five years in prison on the money laundering charge but allowed DeLay to serve 10 years of probation instead of more prison time.
"I do not agree that the Travis County District Attorney's Office has picked on Tom DeLay to persecute," Priest said.
DeLay was briefly taken into custody, but Priest granted a request from his attorneys that he be released on a $10,000 bond pending appeal. About three hours after he was sentenced, DeLay posted bond and walked out of the county jail without talking to reporters.
DeLay's attorney Dick DeGuerin said he expected the conviction would be overturned.
"If I told you what I thought, I'd get sued," DeGuerin said. "This will not stand."
The former congressman had faced up to life in prison. His attorneys asked for probation.
"What we feel is that justice was served," lead prosecutor Gary Cobb said.
During his closing argument, Cobb told Priest that if DeLay received only probation, the ex-lawmaker would use such a sentence to make himself a martyr for his political beliefs and that he would "wear probation like Jesus on the cross."
"He put his principles, ideals and beliefs above the laws of Texas," Cobb said.
Priest issued his ruling after a brief sentencing hearing on Monday in which former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert testified on DeLay's behalf.
Prosecutors attempted to present only one witness at the hearing, Peter Cloeren, a Southeast Texas businessman who claimed DeLay had urged him in 1996 to evade campaign finance laws in a separate case. Prosecutors said the case was similar to the one DeLay was being sentenced for.
But not long after Cloeren began testifying, Senior Judge Pat Priest declined to hear the testimony, saying prosecutors couldn't prove the businessman's claims beyond a reasonable doubt. DeLay's attorneys objected to the testimony, saying the former lawmaker was not criminally charged in the case. Cloeren pleaded guilty to directing illegal corporate money into the 1996 congressional campaign of an East Texas candidate.
DeLay's attorneys had indicated they would have up to nine witnesses but decided to present only Hastert.
Hastert, an Illinois Republican who was House speaker from 1999 to 2006, testified that DeLay was not motivated by power but for a need to help others. Hastert talked about DeLay's conservative and religious values, his efforts to provide tax relief for his constituents in Texas, his work helping foster children and the help he provided to the family of one of the police officers who was killed in a 1998 shooting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
"That's the real Tom DeLay that a lot of people never got to see," Hastert said.
DeLay's lawyers had also submitted more than 30 character and support letters from friends and political leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and eight current U.S. congressmen. Most of the letters ask for leniency in the sentencing.
After a month-long trial in November, a jury determined that he conspired with two associates to use his Texas-based political action committee to send $190,000 in corporate money to an arm of the Washington-based Republican National Committee. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can't go directly to political campaigns.
Prosecutors claim the money helped Republicans take control of the Texas House. That enabled the Republican majority to push through a Delay-engineered congressional redistricting plan that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004, strengthening DeLay's political power.
DeLay contended the charges were politically motivated and the money swap in question was legal. DeGuerin says DeLay committed no crime and believes the convictions will be overturned on appeal.
Tom DeLay Gets Three Years In Prison
Tom DeLay, once the most powerful man in the House of Representatives, was sentenced to three years in prison Monday. But it could have been much worse. Per the Associated Press:
Senior Judge Pat Priest sentenced him to the three-year term on the conspiracy charge. He also sentenced him to five years in prison on the money laundering charge but allowed DeLay to accept 10 years of probation instead of more prison time.
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert testified as a character witness on DeLay's behalf, to no apparent avail. DeLay plans to appeal, but it is a remarkable thing. In most countries, there is corruption among senior political leadership. But the United States system has again distinguished itself by holding that leadership accountable, at least some of the time. DeLay joins a long line of congressmen, like Dan Rostenkowski and Bob Ney, who have found themselves stripped of their liberty for their misdeeds.
In recent days, a major Democratic fundraiser and lobbyist, Paul Magliocchetti, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for evading campaign finance laws as he showered defense appropriators, including the late John Murtha of Pennsylvania and Jim Moran of Virginia, with campaign cash as the members of Congress appropriated money that benefited Magliocchetti's clients.
These are reasons to be proud of our often imperfect Democratic system.
Tom DeLay Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, earlier convicted on conspiracy and money laundering charges in Texas, today was sentenced by Judge Pat Priest to three years in prison. The sentence was directly on the conspiracy charge; on money laundering, his five-year sentence was probated for 10 years, and so he will serve 10 years’ probation.
Prosecutors would like to see DeLay go to jail immediately:
DeLay was taken into custody but he was expected to be released as soon as he posted an appeals bond.
Travis County prosecutors argued that Tom DeLay should go to prison today.
“He needs to go to prison, your Honor, and he needs to go today,” said prosecutor Steven Brand.
Brand said the judge could send a message that no one is above the law.
DeLay’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said the jury’s verdict sent a message.
“Tom DeLay was convicted of a felony,” he said. “That alone is consequence is enough.”
DeGuerin said his client accepts the jury’s verdict but does not agree with it and will fight it.
DeLay had the choice of allowing the judge or the jury to determine the punishment, and he chose the judge. Prosecutors wanted at least 10 years in prison, so DeLay got off relatively light.
He spoke to the court prior to sentencing, saying “I fought the fight. I ran the race. I kept the faith.” Former Speaker Denny Hastert also testified as a character witness on behalf of DeLay. Prosecutors showed a tape in court of DeLay’s comments after conviction, when he said, “Maybe we can get it before people who understand the law.”
I’d expect an appeal, so whether or not DeLay sees jail time right away depends on the judge’s decision to allow his release on bond.
The case concerns DeLay’s PAC illegally laundering corporate money through the RNC, to the tune of $190,000, to state legislative candidates in Texas. State laws bar corporate spending, direct or indirect, on elections. Those legislative candidates eventually won, flipping the legislature to Republicans, and they used that power to push through a partisan redistricting scheme that bolstered DeLay’s Republican House majorities.
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