The Justice Department is investigating Christine DeLay as part of the Abramoff investigation.
In the last few weeks, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have interviewed several people at the Alexander Strategy Group lobbying firm to determine if Christine DeLay was being paid $3,200 a month — a total of $115,000 over three years — but not earning it. In a series of interviews last month, investigators questioned people who used to work at Alexander Strategy as well as people who worked in the same building as the now-defunct firm. “They wanted to know how often she came to the office? What did she do there? How long was she there?” said one person who was interviewed by the FBI.
Alexander Strategy was run by a pair of Mr. DeLay’s former aides: Tony Rudy, who pleaded guilty to bribery charges in March; and Edwin Buckham, who remains under investigation. The firm also shared clients with Jack Abramoff.
In last month’s interviews, investigators also asked about $144,000 that Mrs. DeLay received from one of Mr. DeLay’s fund-raising committees, the Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, which was housed at the lobbying firm’s offices. Investigators also inquired about fees paid to Mr. DeLay’s daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro, a longtime political consultant to her father.
Richard Cullen, a lawyer for the DeLay family, said Mrs. DeLay was a “key adviser to her husband and her employment at Armpac and Alexander Strategy was real and valuable.” Mr. Cullen has said that Mrs. DeLay’s job at the firm was to compile a list of lawmakers’ favorite charities. Neither Mr. DeLay nor his wife has been interviewed by the Justice Department, Mr. Cullen said.
He also said that prosecutors haven’t made the DeLays a “target” of their investigation. The Justice Department generally doesn’t consider someone a target until it is close to issuing indictments.
The latest round of FBI questioning signals that the Justice Department doesn’t plan on letting up on Mr. DeLay now that he has left Congress. They also show that prosecutors might target his wife in order to force a guilty plea from Mr. DeLay.
Shocking, I know. Josh Marshall has documented quite a few instances of Republican Congressfolk enriching themselves through their wives in similar fashion. Hard to imagine DeLay not being on the cutting edge of this kind of innovation. Link via TPM Muckraker.
UPDATE: Greg in TX-22 summarizes what we knew and what is new in this article.
What took the FBI so long? This is old news, first reported months ago. Christine DeLay was paid $144,000 to compile a list of charities. Nice work if you can get it. I hear daughter Dani is next.
Dennis,
It is even old news that investigators were looking at the payments to Christine DeLay.
The WSJ article makes it clear that Dani Ferro DeLay is already under investigation. While we already knew of mysterious payments to Dani, news of inquiries by investigators was new to me.
The rumor I had heard earlier, which is apparently untrue, was that DeLay resigned – and turned down the chance to stay on the ballot – precisely to avoid investigation and prosecution of his wife and daughter. Couldn’t happen to more deserving people. A few more Republicans in jail just might begin to restore a tiny bit of my personal confidence in our government.