Judge upholds some of the charges against Rep. Tom DeLay

AUSTIN, Texas — A judge dismissed a conspiracy charge against Rep. Tom DeLay on Monday but refused to throw out far more serious allegations of money laundering, dashing the congressman's hopes for now of reclaiming his post as House majority leader.

Texas Judge Pat Priest, who is presiding over the case against DeLay, issued the ruling after a hearing late last month in which the Texas Republican's attorney argued that the indictment was fatally flawed.

When he was indicted in September, DeLay was required under House rules to relinquish the leadership post he had held since 2003. While Monday's ruling was a partial victory for DeLay, he cannot reclaim his post because he remains under indictment.

The ruling means the case will move toward a trial next year, although other defense objections to the indictments remain to be heard by the judge.

DeLay declined to speak with reporters Monday evening as he entered a campaign fundraiser with Vice President Dick Cheney at a Houston hotel. But DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden said the court's decision "underscores just how baseless and politically motivated the charges were."

DeLay "is very encouraged by the swift progress of the legal proceedings and looks forward to his eventual and absolute exoneration based on the facts and the law," Madden said.

In a written statement, prosecutor Ronnie Earle's office said authorities had made no decision about whether to challenge the decision. Prosecutors have 15 days to do that.

DeLay, 58, and two GOP fundraisers, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, are accused of illegally funneling $190,000 in corporate donations to GOP candidates for the Texas Legislature in 2002. Under Texas law, corporate money cannot be directly used for political campaigns, but it can be used for administrative purposes.

In asking that the case be thrown out, DeLay lawyer Dick DeGuerin argued that the law on which one of the charges was based — conspiracy to violate the Texas election code — did not take effect until September 2003, a year after the alleged offenses occurred.

Prosecutors, however, said the crime of conspiracy was already on the books, and could be applied to the election code even though such uses were not explicitly in state law at the time.

The judge was unpersuaded by that argument and dismissed the conspiracy charge. But the judge upheld charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Those charges involve an alleged attempt by DeLay to conceal the source of the campaign contributions by funneling the money through his own political-action committee and then an arm of the Republican National Committee (RNC).

In trying to have those charges thrown out, the defense argued that the Texas money-laundering law does not apply to money in the form of a check, just coins or paper money. But the judge said that checks "are clearly funds and can be the subject of money laundering."

The defense attorneys also argued that the definition of money laundering in Texas involves the transfer of criminal proceeds. Because the money in this case was not illegal to begin with, they argued, money laundering never occurred.

But the judge rejected that argument, too, saying the money became suspect when "it began to be held with the prohibited intent."

He said if prosecutors can prove that DeLay and his associates obtained the corporate donations "with the express intent of converting those funds to the use of individual candidates," or that they converted money legally collected by sending it to the RNC and asking for the same amount to be sent back to Texas candidates, "then they will have established that money was laundered."

Conspiracy to violate the election code carries up to two years in prison. Money laundering is punishable by five years to life. Conspiracy to commit money laundering carries two years.

With DeLay's fundraising muscle, the GOP took control of the Texas House for the first time in 130 years, then pushed through a congressional-redistricting plan engineered by DeLay that resulted in more Texas Republicans going to Congress.

At the court hearing last month, DeLay's lawyers asked for a quick decision on their request for a dismissal, and, if the ruling went against DeLay, a prompt trial, in hopes that he could regain his leadership post by the time the House reconvenes in January. But the judge said at the time that it was unlikely the case would go to trial before the first of the year.

Norm Ornstein, an analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, said DeLay's chances of regaining his leadership job were "slim to none."

"You've got a lot of people who privately view DeLay as so radioactive," said Ornstein, a frequent critic of DeLay. The congressman is also linked to an ongoing investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff.