| Author | Message | ||
     Blake |
We have Charley Rangel stealing money via tax fraud get off without even an indictment. It's a pity the article didn't reveal the political background of the judge. Just too much partisan politics to trust the sentence as being fair. Sure seems excessive for $190,000 diversion of campaign funds to the wrong campaign fund. If he stole it for himself, then I'd say thrown the book at him. I dunno... After a month-long trial in November, a jury determined that he conspired with two associates to use his Texas-based political action committee to send $190,000 in corporate money to an arm of the Washington-based Republican National Committee. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can't go directly to political campaigns. | ||
| Hootowl |
I don't think it was possible for him to get a fair trial in Austin. | ||
| Buellkowski |
Keyword: "conspiracy". | ||
| Moxnix |
Prosecutor Gary Cobb was an assistant to Ronnie Earle for 17 years. No Republican bothered to run in Travis County for the job. | ||
| Blake |
>>> Keyword: "conspiracy". Meaning what in this case, beyond the prosecutor's choice of charge and contention that what was done was illegal? It was no mere conspiracy. The money was indeed transferred, so it was an act, not just a "conspiracy", a word that carries its own very heavy baggage. If the act was illegal, then charge that illegal act. The point is that what was done appears in fact to not have been illegal. Sending money to the national fund? Legal! The national fund disbursing money to Texas candidates? Legal! A mere $190K sent to seven candidates amounts to roughly $27K each. The "crime" hinges on the contention that the disbursements from the national fund were pre-arranged and contingent upon the same sum being first received by the national fund from the corporate donors. I'd say that it is a very tenuous case to make, and it sure seems to be an easy law to subvert. Just make the sum of funds returned to candidates add up to a different sum than was submitted to the national fund, and don't put anything in writing. | ||
| Blake |
How can you not trust an adult man named "Ronnie Earle"? He sounds like such a swell guy, a true good ol' boy. | ||
| Sifo |
This kind of thing happens often. Normally the elections committee takes a look at it, points it out, money gets reshuffled, and the press mostly ignores that it happened. I remember this happening to Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and George Bush to name a few. This is the first time I recall trying to turn it into a money laundering case. | ||
| Whitetrashxb |
Since he won't spend a day in jail until after the appeals process is over with, he might have a good chance of not spending a day in jail at all | ||
| Moxnix |
Ronnie Earle made a years long job of going after DeLay before leaving his State attorney job and his bootlick getting elected. Huh, maybe those two have been in a conspiracy. God Bless Texas. (So reads the stick on my car's rear window). | ||
| Buellkowski |
The "crime" hinges on the contention that the disbursements from the national fund were pre-arranged and contingent upon the same sum being first received by the national fund from the corporate donors. That's conspiracy to break Texas law. Convicted. Any reason to believe that there wasn't sufficient evidence? He faced life in prison and received 3 years. A lesser man would have likely received a harsher sentence. | ||
| Strokizator |
Apparently DeLay's mistake was in not first funneling the money through some Buddhist monks. Whatever Al Gore charges these days for consulting would have been money well spent. Live and learn. |
