The Charges

If Homer Simpson earned $200K selling cocaine, then deposited the cash into Marge's checking account, and she in turn purchased the Springfield Kwik-E-Mart from Abu - would that series of events constitute money laundering? Such was the example used by Travis County Assistant District Attorney Gary Cobb in his PowerPoint presentation, to a pool of 91 potential jurors, of the DA's Cause #D-1-DC-05-904161 in the 331st District Court of Texas against Thomas Dale DeLay. 

The charges against DeLay are conspiracy and money laundering relating to corporate campaign contributions during the 2002 mid-term elections. Texas is one of 20 states prohibiting the use of corporate donations. It's a law that's been on the books for over one hundred years. Corporations are forbidden from donating directly to candidates, and their donations to political action committees (PACs) may only be applied to administrative costs — so the defendant's guilt or innocence may rely in part on the jury's definition of what those costs include. If found guilty, the conspiracy charge would result in a sentence of 2 yrs probation to 20 yrs in prison, and a money laundering conviction could result in 5 yrs probation to 99 yrs in prison. 

The prosecution claims DeLay's motive was to influence enough elections in Texas to gain a Republican majority in the House, then redistrict the entire state (a process typically practiced every ten years after the national census) in a way that would give the GOP an advantage toward maintaining control of the Texas House in the future. The 2001 redistricting was resolved judicially after Republicans and Democrats were unable to agree on a new map, and the results were not to DeLay's liking.

Several companies, some of which neither conducted business or engaged lobbyists in Texas, each donated $25-100K to a short-lived PAC known as Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC). The organization's corporate fundraiser was Warren Robold, who also acted as the corporate fundraiser for DeLay's leadership PAC, based in DC, known as Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC). TRMPAC was the brainchild of DeLay, intended as a localized version of his national ARMPAC.

Once those corporate donations (referred to as 'soft money') were collected from the state based TRMPAC, the organization sent a check for $190,000 to the Republican National Committee (RNC), another national PAC based in Washington, DC. A few weeks after that check was received, the RNC sent checks totaling the same amount from the private donations account (known as 'hard money') of its affiliate the Republican National State Elections Committee (RNSEC) to several candidates in Texas who were running very competitive races in districts critical to the success of the GOP's redistricting strategy.

John Colyandro, as well as Jim Ellis who was the former Executive Director of ARMPAC, are also indicted on charges related to the exchange in question and will be facing trial separately as DeLay's co-conspirators.