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Comments from an AP history
and government teacher in Raleigh, NC.
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Thursday, September 29, 2005
Not being a lawyer and not being able to see the evidence since the indictment doesn't have much evidence in it (not that it has to, from what I understand) I can't say much additional on the indictment of Tom DeLay. On the face of it, judging from what I've seen on TV all last night and read here at Generation Why it all seems very flimsy and something squeezed out of the Grand Jury at the last possible minute before it expired so that a partisan prosecutor could get the headline he wanted: Delay Indicted. It also appears that Democrats in Texas were doing the exact same thing that DeLay is accused of doing. It does semll that this prosecutor was using his single-minded obsession against Tom DeLay as a fund-raising appeal. That, by itself, should get the charges either dismissed or handed off to a different prosecutor. Most people who have looked at the indictment itself think that it doesn't show enough to assess DeLay's guilt and one expert in Texas says that the prosecutor better have a witness who has rolled over on DeLay or the whole case will fall apart.Most legal experts looking at the conspiracy indictment of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said Wednesday that either an insider has turned against DeLay or the prosecutor may have gone too far.
"I can't imagine indicting a majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives without having a smoking gun, and that means someone who flipped on DeLay," said Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer who filed a related civil lawsuit on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates. "He's got to have corroborating evidence, too, bills and things proving where DeLay was at key times."
Several lawyers and law professors said Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle could have talked the grand jury into a questionable indictment if he hasn't secured key witnesses who were "in the room" with DeLay. Otherwise, this conspiracy case could be too hard to prove with just circumstantial evidence, they said.
JunkyardBlog has some other interesting observations. His reading of the law involved is that it applies only to state officials, not federal ones. We'll need to have lawyers examine the paragraph in question and see if they agree. And it does seem clear that Travis County, home of the prosecutor, does not have jurisdiction here and that the charge should have been brought in Tom DeLay's home county. Delay and his lawyers will need to get an expedited review of all this so that it doesn't drag out into the election next year. I'm sure that Ronnie Earle will be trying to do just the opposite.
Personally, I find the association with Jack Abramoff much more off-putting and dismaying than these charges. I don't know if DeLay broke the law there, but it sure turned me off of DeLay. But, even if this case is dismissed or Tom DeLay is found not guilty, the damage will have been done. He's been removed from leadership and now, forever after, there will be that little phrase following his name, "the once-indicted" Tom DeLay. And the Democrats will be able to use their talking points linking together DeLay, Frist and Rove and talk about a "culture of corruption." It isn't going to help. So, in that sense, for Ronnie Earle: Mission Accomplished.
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Not being a lawyer and not being able to see the evidence since the indictment doesn't have much evidence in it (not that it has to, from what I understand) I can't say much additional on the indictment of Tom DeLay. On the face of it, judging from what I've seen on TV all last night and read here at Generation Why it all seems very flimsy and something squeezed out of the Grand Jury at the last possible minute before it expired so that a partisan prosecutor could get the headline he wanted: Delay Indicted. It also appears that Democrats in Texas were doing the exact same thing that DeLay is accused of doing. It does semll that this prosecutor was using his single-minded obsession against Tom DeLay as a fund-raising appeal. That, by itself, should get the charges either dismissed or handed off to a different prosecutor. Most people who have looked at the indictment itself think that it doesn't show enough to assess DeLay's guilt and one expert in Texas says that the prosecutor better have a witness who has rolled over on DeLay or the whole case will fall apart.
JunkyardBlog has some other interesting observations. His reading of the law involved is that it applies only to state officials, not federal ones. We'll need to have lawyers examine the paragraph in question and see if they agree. And it does seem clear that Travis County, home of the prosecutor, does not have jurisdiction here and that the charge should have been brought in Tom DeLay's home county. Delay and his lawyers will need to get an expedited review of all this so that it doesn't drag out into the election next year. I'm sure that Ronnie Earle will be trying to do just the opposite.
Personally, I find the association with Jack Abramoff much more off-putting and dismaying than these charges. I don't know if DeLay broke the law there, but it sure turned me off of DeLay. But, even if this case is dismissed or Tom DeLay is found not guilty, the damage will have been done. He's been removed from leadership and now, forever after, there will be that little phrase following his name, "the once-indicted" Tom DeLay. And the Democrats will be able to use their talking points linking together DeLay, Frist and Rove and talk about a "culture of corruption." It isn't going to help. So, in that sense, for Ronnie Earle: Mission Accomplished.
0 comments
Not being a lawyer and not being able to see the evidence since the indictment doesn't have much evidence in it (not that it has to, from what I understand) I can't say much additional on the indictment of Tom DeLay. On the face of it, judging from what I've seen on TV all last night and read here at Generation Why it all seems very flimsy and something squeezed out of the Grand Jury at the last possible minute before it expired so that a partisan prosecutor could get the headline he wanted: Delay Indicted. It also appears that Democrats in Texas were doing the exact same thing that DeLay is accused of doing. It does semll that this prosecutor was using his single-minded obsession against Tom DeLay as a fund-raising appeal. That, by itself, should get the charges either dismissed or handed off to a different prosecutor. Most people who have looked at the indictment itself think that it doesn't show enough to assess DeLay's guilt and one expert in Texas says that the prosecutor better have a witness who has rolled over on DeLay or the whole case will fall apart.
Most legal experts looking at the conspiracy indictment of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said Wednesday that either an insider has turned against DeLay or the prosecutor may have gone too far.
"I can't imagine indicting a majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives without having a smoking gun, and that means someone who flipped on DeLay," said Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer who filed a related civil lawsuit on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates. "He's got to have corroborating evidence, too, bills and things proving where DeLay was at key times."
Several lawyers and law professors said Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle could have talked the grand jury into a questionable indictment if he hasn't secured key witnesses who were "in the room" with DeLay. Otherwise, this conspiracy case could be too hard to prove with just circumstantial evidence, they said.
JunkyardBlog has some other interesting observations. His reading of the law involved is that it applies only to state officials, not federal ones. We'll need to have lawyers examine the paragraph in question and see if they agree. And it does seem clear that Travis County, home of the prosecutor, does not have jurisdiction here and that the charge should have been brought in Tom DeLay's home county. Delay and his lawyers will need to get an expedited review of all this so that it doesn't drag out into the election next year. I'm sure that Ronnie Earle will be trying to do just the opposite.
Personally, I find the association with Jack Abramoff much more off-putting and dismaying than these charges. I don't know if DeLay broke the law there, but it sure turned me off of DeLay. But, even if this case is dismissed or Tom DeLay is found not guilty, the damage will have been done. He's been removed from leadership and now, forever after, there will be that little phrase following his name, "the once-indicted" Tom DeLay. And the Democrats will be able to use their talking points linking together DeLay, Frist and Rove and talk about a "culture of corruption." It isn't going to help. So, in that sense, for Ronnie Earle: Mission Accomplished.
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