MSNBC: Breaking news. This is from a different grand jury (?). So, he faces two separate indictments.
Lou Dobbs on CNN is confirming via an A.P. wire.
Update [2005-10-4 16:15:59 by susanhu]:
Alternet’s PEEK has “Peek: DeLay Grand Jury foreman speaks (video).”
‘There is enough evidence.’ For more than one indictment perhaps?
From PBS Newshour
October 4, 2005, 12:15pm EDT
DELAY INDICTED ON NEW MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGE
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, was indicted again Monday on charges of conspiring to launder money and money laundering, following an indictment last week that caused him to step down from his leadership post.
Sept. 28, 2005:
Two experts discuss the first indictment of Tom DeLay.
The money laundering charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison. The charge of conspiracy to launder money is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, reported the Associated Press.
Last week, DeLay was charged with conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws. Defense lawyers asked a judge Monday to toss out the indictment, contending it was based on a statute that did not take effect until 2003, a year after the alleged acts.
The new indictment from District Attorney Ronnie Earle came just hours after the new grand jurors in Texas were sworn in.
“Ronnie Earle has stooped to a new low with his brand of prosecutorial abuse,” Delay said in a statement.
“He is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a ‘do-over’ since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate. This is an abomination of justice.”
A statement from Earle’s office outlined the new charges but did not address DeLay’s criticism.
More than 40 grand jury indictments have been returned so far in Earle’s two-and-a-half-year investigation of Republican campaign tactics during 2002 state House elections in Texas …
Bwahhahhhahhhahh!!!!
Now we can compare Delay to drug dealers and mobsters. Is a RICO indictment next?
That would be so cool!
Yes, this is excellent. Everyone who has watched a cop show or mob movie knows that money laundering is bad and even has an inkling of what it is. And it has a colorful and evocative name. DeLay is so through. Pwned!!1!! as the kiddies say.
AP
partisan Attorneys General and biased grand juries.
This has got to be set up!
If not this one, the next indictment is definitely bogus.
Well…
my day just got brighter 🙂
Just got brighter again
Yahoo – via Atrios
Emphasis added – and enjoyed immensely.
marcher. I want my jumping frog marcher.
Eh? Two grand juries looking at the same information/evidence? Why? Is this a separate case? I am here in Austin and I am totally clueless about this “second grand jury”…
What’s the scoop?
This frm the AP article:
Both indictments accuse DeLay and two political associates of conspiring to get around a state ban on corporate campaign contributions by funneling the money through a political action committee to the Republican National Committee in Washington.
The grand jury that handed down the first indictment ended its term last week. The new grand jury picked up where the old one left off. I’m not up on Texas criminal procedure, but I’d guess that the separate indictments will be consolidated at some point.
Is this accurate? Is this indictment for the same crime as the previous one? Is Ronnie Earle the prosecutor on this one too?
And, is this called “piling on”?
Whaddya think Tommy boyo and his smear machine are going to say now?
They already have. Tommy’s attorney was already on with Dan Abrams, by phone, at the moment Dan was reading the breaking news report — before CNN even reported it! Before Google News or anyone had it!
What did he say??
Wait, let me guess. Something along the lines of:
Because they knew the conspiracy indictment was complete BS, they [evil Ronnie, Nancy and pals] threw everything they had at the newly seated grand jury and baffled them into this new, but equally bogus charge. We filed for dismissal of the first indictment, but the judge is out of the country and no one else in the partisian hotbed of vindicitive liberalism would rule in his stead, but we are confident that as soon as he returns, he will dismiss the first indicitment and we are currently working to get this second one dismissed too. Tom DeLay is Jesus, democrats are demons. Thanks, and good night, Dan.
Something like that??
Dear brinnaine,
You’re hired.
Sincerely,
Tom DeLay
LOL!
He would rue the day, catnip! But hell, at this point, I’d take the job….
But you won’t receive your first paycheck for a while because we need to set up a new laundering operation for the money.
here
Hmmmmm.
I’m bet DeLay has him hog-tied in the back of a pickup truck somewhere.
“I’m bet” is Canadian for “I bet”. We’re strange up here.
Watch the part of the story that talks about the statute not being in effect at the time of the original alleged crimes. DeLay playing that one, but I saw a comment somewhere (where?) that a law prof said, Nonsense.
So it’s possible the original thing may stand.
Olbermann was saying tonight that the Grand Jury was pieced together quickly by Earle in response to DeLay’s Lawyers’ argument about the original.
He had a grand jury together, presented the case as a money-laundering one instead of a conspiracy, and had the grand jury (a brand new one, mind you) convinced DeLay should be indicted on that charge too!
Earle is covering his bases on this. He knows he’s got DeLay, and didn’t want him slithering away on a technicality.
Drive a stake through his heart! This one’s for straight money laundering, last week’s was for conspiracy to launder money. Just great too, more scope to investigate with, more leverage to twist arms of his associates.
It’s only Monday. This is going to be one helluva week.
However, I’m not counting on any eggs being hatched until they actually hatch. But I sure will take this for starters!
Channeling Jackie Gleason: How schweeeeet it is!!!
ain’t comin’ from the Frog Pond Cafe.
That’s the smell of burned cooked goose.
I believe that in his next life, DeLay will come back as the cockroach he portrayed in this life. teehee
WOOHOOO- anybody mind if I dance nekkid in the street?
I’d loooooove to have Hot-Tub Tom head down to Guantanamo and tell those folks how his indictment is an “abomination of justice.”
At least he’s going to get his day in court…when the hell will they???