Summary of Complaint Against Tom Delay

[Michael Hoover <hooverm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

has below been in news...

Summary of Complaint against Rep. Tom DeLay
Filed by Rep. Chris Bell
June 8, 2004
On June 8, 2004, Congressman Chris Bell (D-TX) submitted a complaint to the House
Committee on Standards of Official Conduct regarding the conduct of House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay. The complaint alleges that Mr. DeLay violated the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Federal bribery statute, Texas campaign finance laws to advance his political interests in the state of Texas.

The complaint charges that:
(1) DeLay illegally solicited and accepted political contributions in return for official
action. In the spring and summer of 2002, then Majority Whip DeLay, violated Federal law and the rules of the House of Representatives by soliciting and accepting contributions for his Texas-based political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), from executives of the Kansas-based Westar Energy Corporation in return for legislative assistance on an amendment to the energy bill pending before the House Energy and Commerce Committee that would have saved Westar billions of dollars. Although Mr. DeLay was not a member of the Committee, his position in the House leadership and his close ties to senior Republican Members of the Committee, including its chairman, afforded him extraordinary influence over the amendment s fate. Westar executives noted DeLay s influence in internal company communications and contributed $25,000 to TRMPAC to curry DeLay s support.

Violations: 18 U.S.C. §201(b)(2) prohibits public officials from seeking,
receiving, accepting or agreeing to accept anything of value in return for doing or
omitting to do any act in violation of that official s official duty. Section 3 of the
Code of Official Conduct provides that  [a] Member . . . of the House may not
receive compensation and may not permit compensation to accrue to his
beneficial interest from any source, the receipt of which would occur by virtue of
influence improperly exerted from his position in Congress. 

(2) DeLay s TRMPAC laundered illegal corporate contributions for the purpose of
influencing Texas legislative races and failed to properly disclose its financial
activity. Through TRMPAC, Mr. DeLay used corporate money to secure Republican majority control of the Texas Legislature in the 2002 election in order to gerrymander Texas congressional districts to create more Republican districts. TRMPAC, which operates under Texas law for the purpose of influencing state elections, was managed by Jim Ellis, a top DeLay aide who also ran DeLay s federally registered Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC). During the week of September 9, 2002, TRMPAC sent $190,000 in corporate funds to the Republican National Committee in an apparent money-laundering scheme intended to
provide candidates for the Texas State Legislature with additional funding shortly before the election. Because Texas law prevents corporations from making contributions to candidates, TRMPAC could not give the money to candidates directly. Instead, TRMPAC gave Jim Ellis a blank check drawn on the PAC s soft money account, which Ellis then made out to the RNC for $190,000. Within three weeks, the RNC's state election committee sent the same amount back to Texas, divided among seven Republican candidates for the Texas State House of Representatives.

Violations: Under Texas campaign finance laws and regulations, political action
committees, such as DeLay s TRMPAC, are prohibited from using corporate
donations to help individual candidates. Moreover, PACs must disclose all the
money spent to influence state elections to the Texas Ethics Commission
( TEC ). A comparison of TRMPAC s filings with the IRS and the TEC shows
that TRMPAC failed to accurately report its expenditures, further supporting the
charge that TRMPAC used corporate money to support political candidates in a
calculated and premeditated effort to evade and violate Texas law.

(3) DeLay improperly used his office to urge federal agencies to assist in a partisan
objective wholly unrelated to his official duties. During the summer of 2003, Mr. DeLay violated House Standards of Official Conduct prohibiting Members from contacting government agencies to further partisan goals by improperly using his office to exhort federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) and the Department of Justice, to search for and interdict state legislators absent from the state legislative session in Texas. In the most egregious instance, on May 12, 2003, Rep. DeLay s Congressional office pressed the FAA to provide assistance in locating an airplane that was believed to be flying some of the
absent legislators out of Texas. DeLay s staff gave the FAA the tail number of the
aircraft and, without providing any explanation for the request, asked the FAA to find the aircraft. The FAA tracked the plane and advised Mr. DeLay s staff that the aircraft was due to land in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Violations: The standards of conduct applicable to Members under the 1970
Advisory Opinion No. 1 of the House Committee on Standards of Official
Conduct require that contact with government agencies, whether it be in the cause
of constituent casework, legitimate oversight or inquiries into official action, not
be for  political  considerations. 

Conclusion
Upon entering office, Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are expected to
adhere to the highest ethical standards. The clearest expression of these standards is
found in the Code of Official Conduct (Rule XXIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives), which instructs a Member to  conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House  and to  adhere to the spirit and the letter of the Rules of the House. Beyond the Code of Official Conduct, which applies only to the House of Representatives, Members are bound to abide by an extensive body of rules, regulations, and statutes relating to the appropriate conduct of all individuals in the service of the Federal government. Finally, Members are expected to obey the same laws that apply to their constituents. No person, including a Member of Congress, is above Federal, state, or local law. The complaint filed with the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct alleges that Mr. DeLay failed to comply with the rules of the House, Federal statutes, and the laws of
his own state. If Members are to fulfill their ethical and legal obligations today and in the future, they must understand that ethical failures will be swiftly investigated and, if warranted, justly punished by a bipartisan committee of their peers. Majority Leader DeLay s dereliction of his own obligations to the House and the people he represents demands such an investigation.
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