Tom DeLay's funny-money trail

The Travis County D.A.'s investigation represents the first time any of DeLay's fundraising operations have been subjected to legal scrutiny. An impotent Federal Election Commission makes enforcement at the federal level improbable. Democrats filed a racketeering lawsuit against DeLay in 1998 and actually got it certified by the same district judge who presided over the Microsoft antitrust lawsuit in Washington. But they quickly folded and settled. Now, Texas D.A. Ronnie Earle, with subpoena power and a staff of investigators and lawyers, is doing what no one has thus far been able to accomplish. He is investigating the Texas franchise of what in Washington is referred to as DeLay Inc. -- the largest funding combine ever controlled by a single member of Congress. (It raised $12.6 million from 2000-'02.)

Earle is in no hurry and is expected to turn the findings over to a second grand jury in April, when the term of grand jurors conducting the current investigation expires. A slow and methodical investigation, if the past month suggests what's to come, cannot serve the interests of Tom DeLay.

Compounding the majority leader's problems is Earle's separate, or perhaps parallel, criminal investigation of the Texas Association of Business whose PAC spent $1.9 million along with the $1.5 million TRMPAC spent on the 2002 election. There are also two civil suits filed by former Democratic legislators who have presented strong arguments that the Texas Association of Business and TRMPAC violated Texas election law. Legal pleadings, depositions and documents obtained in the pretrial discovery process for the civil suits, unlike grand jury proceedings, are public record unless sealed.

How did a bunch of supposedly shrewd political operatives make so many mistakes in one election campaign? In their arrogance they assumed no one would hold them accountable. The Texas attorney general is a former Karl Rove client, who has shown little interest in suing Republicans. The Legislature is firmly in control of the Republicans and unlikely to hold hearings on compliance with campaign finance law. And the only public statement Republican Gov. Rick Perry has made is a demand that "the appropriate authority" begin an investigation -- of Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle.

Earle is the one variable the wiseguys from TRMPAC failed to include in their equation. His Public Integrity Unit is funded by the Legislature and mandated to prosecute public corruption. But he has done little with that mandate since his 1994 prosecution of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison -- for official misconduct and records tampering -- fell apart in the courtroom when Earle declined to go forward with the case.

Now Earle is 62, nearing the end of his career, and faces no opponent in November. TRMPAC has presented him with a case he believes he cannot ignore. "He's really incensed about this stuff," said Joe Crews, an Austin attorney representing a former state legislator suing ARMPAC. "He really believes that this is where you have to draw the line in a democracy, if we are going to have a democratic process."

According to sources close to the case there is little doubt that indictments will be handed down. At the center of the investigation is John Colyandro, who showed up at a deposition for the civil suit with his criminal defense lawyer. Colyandro has reportedly been given limited immunity. Jim Ellis, who ran DeLay's Washington PAC and is hardly naive about campaign finance law, is dangerously close to the center of the inquiry. He directed TRMPAC and called most of the shots, and e-mails turned up in the civil suit connect him to the $190,000 TRMPAC sent to Washington. Bill Ceverha, Tom DeLay's roommate in "Macho Manor," a legendary 1980s legislators' party house, was the PAC treasurer and should have been aware of how money was raised and spent. Two Republican state reps served on the TRMPAC board and raised campaign money.

The majority leader himself may have enough of what Richard Nixon liked to call "plausible deniability" to avoid indictment. But he cannot claim he knew nothing, or even little, of what his PAC was doing in Texas. There are too many documents, e-mails and phone logs. Too many people are talking under oath, when the threat of going to jail for perjury encourages them to tell the truth. A Colyandro deposition in the civil suit already places DeLay squarely in the PAC's decision-making process: in conference calls and major decisions TRMPAC made. It's also part of the public record that DeLay was one of the founders of the PAC and served on its board.

Besieged by lawyers and investigators, Texas Republicans seem to be shifting from a litigation strategy to a legislative strategy. The state Republican Party is circulating a petition calling on the Legislature to shut down the Travis County D.A.'s Public Integrity Unit. A source close to the investigation says that the D.A. has been warned that the governor might take up the issue of funding in a special session. Should that occur, Earle will stand on his constitutional authority. The Legislature can take away his funding, but it cannot eliminate his authority to investigate and prosecute public corruption.

The district attorney will soldier on, even if his funding and staff are eliminated. Editorial boards from the state's major daily newspapers are supporting his efforts. He seems confident that he has both the law and the facts working for him. The threat to cut his funds won't work. "He'll go it alone, issuing grand jury subpoenas based on newspaper clips," the source said. "Ronnie's in this one for keeps and these guys are in deep shit."

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