I’ll be honest, I’d forgotten there was an ongoing federal investigation of him by this point. It had been so long since I’d seen any news about it.
Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, today said he is happy to have a federal investigation of his relationship with dishonored lobbyist Jack Abramoff behind him and now is ready to fight Texas ethics charges.
A pre-trial hearing in the state ethics case against DeLay and two colleagues is scheduled for Aug. 24. The case has been in limbo for almost five years because of a pre-trial appeal seeking to throw out a money laundering indictment, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the indictment earlier this year.
DeLay’s lawyers late last week got a telephone call from U.S. Justice Department officials saying there will be no charges brought against DeLay in the five-year investigation of his relationship with Abramoff.
Plenty of other people were convicted as a result of L’Affaire Abramoff, including former GOP Congressmen Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham, a couple of former DeLay staffers, and of course Abramoff himself. As for the Hammer himself, we’ll see how he does with the state charges as that case finally sees the inside of a courtroom next week.
I still stick by my rule… NEVER trust a 50+ year old man that doesn’t have one single gray hair!
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