Legal battle to reinstate DeLay conviction grows

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is in the news again for saying God wrote the U.S. Constitution. See some other highlights during his time in and out of Congress. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is in the news again for saying God wrote the U.S. Constitution. See some other highlights during his time in and out of Congress. Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Legal battle to reinstate DeLay conviction grows 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN – A government-watchdog group on Tuesday petitioned the state's highest criminal court to reinstate the money-laundering and conspiracy convictions of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay, moving to join a brewing legal fight before a scheduled June 18 court hearing in the case.

DeLay, a former Sugar Land Republican, was convicted in November 2010 by a Travis County jury of raising almost $700,000 in corporate contributions through Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee, and using those funds to help Republicans win a majority in the Texas House in 2003.

Corporate contributions to Texas politicans have been barred since 1903, and prosecutors alleged that DeLay directed a criminal conspiracy to illegally launder corporate funds into Texas House races, an argument that watchdog group Texans for Public Justice said is correct and should result in reinstatement of DeLay's conviction.The group filed an amicus brief Tuesday with the state Court of Criminal Appeals.

The long-running case has been a flash point of controversy between Republicans and Democrats in Texas for years, with both sides charging that the other has misinterpreted the campaign-finance law to serve their purposes.

Last September, Austin's 3rd Court of Appeals overturned the conviction on grounds that there was insufficient evidence in the case. The decision was 2-1, with two Republicans voting to overturn the judgment and one Democrat voting not to.

In filings with the high courts, prosecutors have argued that the evidence was sufficient and that the jury verdict for conviction was proper. DeLay's attorneys have argued in separate filings that the fundraising was legal and that prosecutors misapplied the state law in indicting DeLay.

Calling the dismissal of DeLay's conviction a "partisan, result-oriented ruling" by the appeals court, Craig McDonald, executive director of the watchdog group. "Facts show that DeLay and his co-conspirators knowingly broke Texas election laws."

In 2012, two other defendants in the case pleaded guilty to charges of accepting illegal campaign contributions in the 2002 legislative races. DeLay, once one of the most powerful members of the U.S. House, left Congress as a result of the indictment.