Indictment issued against DeLay's TRMPAC

The Travis County grand jury has issued an indictement against the "Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee" created by Congressman Tom DeLay to provide corporate funds to take over the Texas House of Representatives in 2002. There were also four indictments issued against the "Texas Association of Business."

From the Austin-American Statesman:

If convicted, the state's largest business group faces the threat of fines — up to $20,000 for each count. But the indictments also complicate the group's defense against civil lawsuits filed by losing Democratic candidates. Damages in those suits could be double the $1.7 million that the association spent on 4 million mailers to voters in 2002.

The four indictments against the business group — two of which were issued last month and then sealed — break down the counts by different actions the group took. They include:

n 14 counts of prohibited political contributions by a corporation (TAB) for paying Hammond and staffer Jack Campbell to do political work.

•28 additional counts for fraudulently soliciting money from corporations to use in the 2002 election..

•83 additional counts of prohibited political contributions by a corporation for paying for political mailers and TV commercials.

•Three counts of prohibited political expenditures by a corporation for spending money in connection with 23 legislative campaigns.

All the counts are third-degree felonies.

TRMPAC, in the lone indictment against it, is charged with two counts of illegally accepting corporate donations, including $100,000 from the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care.

Texas House speaker candidate Tom Craddick collected that check at a Houston restaurant days before the 2002 election. He has said he didn't know the amount of the check and was just passing it along to the PAC.

Craddick, who became speaker after Republicans took control in the 2002 elections, was not named in the indictments.

At a noon press conference, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle said TAB and Texans for a Republican Majority worked together in a complicated scheme to circumvent the state law banning corporate money being spent on campaign activity.

TAB has refused to identify the 30 or so corporations that underwrote its mail campaign. But TAB unintentionally disclosed 20 corporations, mostly insurance companies, as donors, in documents it was required to release as part of the civil suit. Additional donors are listed in the indictments, including the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care and the American Health Care Association, sister organizations that together gave $300,000, the largest single corporate contribution to TAB.

People who watch the antics of our Texas criminal class, the Legislature, may recall that the two recent special sessions to establish Consitutitonal funding for the Texas school system failed to achieve anything in part because they refused to raise taxes on currently untaxed businesses.

Anyone besides me see a connection?