INJUSTICE: TOM DE LAY CLEARED OF CHARGES…….SEE NOTE PLEASE
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323308504579085581894576184.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
HYPOCRISY WRIT LARGE…SCOUNDRELS AND LAW BREAKERS LIKE TED KENNEDY AND BARNEY FRANK KEPT GETTING RE-ELECTED WHILE TOM DE LAY WAS FORCED OUT …..RSK
An appeals court all but says he never should have been prosecuted.
After Tom DeLay was convicted of money laundering in 2010, these columns said prosecutors had abused state campaign finance law to exact political retribution against the former GOP leader, and on Thursday a Texas appeals court agreed.
Setting aside the verdict for the 2-1 majority, Justice Melissa Goodwin writes that the evidence was “legally insufficient,” which is a mild way of saying the case never should have been brought. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle ginned up charges by stretching beyond recognition a money-laundering statute meant for drug dealers.
Mr. Earle homed in on Mr. DeLay’s political action committee, which was allowed to accept corporate donations. The outside fund donated to the Republican National Committee, which then independently cut checks to seven Republicans running for the Texas legislature in 2002. Candidates are only supposed to accept money from parties and individuals under the state election code.
The RNC kept segregated accounts for business and individual donations, and such transactions were routine at the time, but Mr. Earle alleged that Mr. DeLay structured the transfers to “launder” the dirty proceeds of a conspiracy. But Justice Goodwin notes that since all the donations were legal, “The fundamental problem with the state’s case was its failure to prove proceeds of criminal activity.”
Liberals think unregulated campaign speech is a crime, but the real offense here was the DeLay prosecution. It was an attempt by a rogue prosecutor to ruin an unsympathetic political figure. Even Mr. DeLay doesn’t deserve that, and he can take more than a little satisfaction in his formal acquittal.
A version of this article appeared September 19, 2013, on page A14 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Tom DeLay’s Vindication.
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