Ralph Reed came out over the weekend with his defense of Tom DeLay. It comes to this: He was only trying to elect Republicans. Is that a crime? Evidently a jury thought so.

Mr. Morally Superior "Christians-for-Hire" Reed says DeLay is a victim of political vendettas and inconsistent laws. He forgets that whether or not they "did it all the time", it was illegal in Texas to accept corporate contributions for state campaigns. That's all. But here's his defense. You be the jury:

I was chairman of the Georgia Republican party in 2002, so I know first-hand that the practice of exchanging soft and hard dollars was both commonplace and legal at the time; it was practiced openly by both parties. Indeed, a commodity-like national market of corporate and personal funds operated among state and national party committees, with soft money traded for hard money (which was harder to raise and therefore more valuable) at between 50 and 75 cents on the dollar. If DeLay’s operatives made any mistake at all, it was being too good at negotiating: They exchanged the funds dollar-for-dollar.This even exchange enabled prosecutors to later claim the funds were “laundered.” But money laundering requires an underlying crime. There was nothing illegal about supporting state House candidates with the funds so exchanged, and the transaction was reported publicly by both DeLay’s state committee and the RNC.

It takes some real balls to write something like this about a time where Reed was actively selling out the Christian Coalition to Jack Abramoff for kickbacks which were laundered through non-profits. If there were even a little bit of fairness in the world, Ralph Reed would be serving a tougher sentence than Abramoff instead of painting himself as the hero of moral conservatives and champion of the likes of Tom DeLay.

Hey, a common-sense decision -- unanimous, no less -- from a Texas appeals court. Via Austin Legal:

The Austin appeals court erred in deciding that the state’s money-laundering statute - used to prosecute associates of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay - did not apply to transfers made via checks, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled today.

The court’s 9-0 decision also upheld the state’s election laws prohibiting corporations from making political contributions to candidates. DeLay’s associates - John Colyandro and Jim Ellis - had challenged the law as an unconstitutional infringement on First Amendment right.

Nice to know there are limits somewhere on First Amendment rights. I can almost understand the logic behind the Supreme Court's ruling about issue-based contributions, but candidates? Not so much. Glad to see it fail.

The issue in this case centered around a big check exchange between the RNC and a candidate's PAC. Here's what they did:

Colyandro and Ellis also were charged with money laundering by transferring $190,000 in corporate contributions to the Republican National Committee by a check, with a similar amount later returned to the state organization.

The law prohibits corporate contributions to candidates. That's why there are PACs, and that's why PAC contributions are limited to $5,000 for any one candidate. These two buddies of Tom Delay's argued that corporations OUGHT to be able to give directly, but since they didn't, it's not money laundering if the transactions weren't in actual bags of cash.

They almost got away with it, too. The definition of proceeds of criminal activity (the direct donation of money to a candidate) was a little bit vague, in that it didn't specifically say checks. It also didn't specify PayPal or EFT transfers, but I doubt anyone wouldn't consider those to be money.

In 2008, the appeals court ruled that the money-laundering law did not apply to Colyandro and Ellis because it did not specifically refer to checks.

The appeals court evidently also figured it out pretty quickly.

The appeals court had no authority to determine that the law only applies to cash payments, Keller wrote.

Keller also noted, however, that the statute could also be read to apply to checks, Keller wrote, noting that “foreign bank notes” operate on the same principle as checks.

The only thing that could make good news like this great? Discovering Tom Delay right smack dab in the middle of a check swap scheme like this.

Kerry is a great person to be handling this, with his background in the BCCI investigation. Can't wait to see what he digs up!

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- John Kerry has never run for sheriff. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he is starting to act like one, and the world is his jurisdiction.

The Massachusetts Democrat is wielding his gavel with an investigative zeal, and plans to take on Iran’s nuclear program, gun-running on the Mexican border, terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking, all through the prism of money laundering. He has hired a former investigative reporter, an ex-CIA agent and a one-time managing director of Bear Stearns Cos. LLC to help him.

“There are lots of big pieces out there that depend on money moving,” he said in an interview in his office in the Senate, where he is serving his 24th year.

Kerry, who was a prosecutor and attorney in Massachusetts before starting his political career in 1982, said the lack of congressional oversight during the Bush administration left behind a target-rich environment for his panel. The Treasury Department “has its hands full” and is “inadequately resourced” to pursue these inquiries, he said.

“For the last eight years we’ve had an administration that has done its utmost to protect, hide, obfuscate, neglect, void, simply not even care about these issues,” said Kerry, 65.

David Vitter will not be investigated.

The Senate Ethics Committee has decided not to investigate Louisiana Senator David Vitter.

The Republican was linked to an elite Washington prostitution ring owned by Deborah Jean Palfrey. Palfrey committed suicide May 1st, two weeks after being convicted of racketeering and money laundering.

The bipartisan ethics panel says it decided against a probe because the conduct occurred before Vitter became a senator. And it says it didn't result in any criminal charges or involve the improper use of his public office or status.

He gets off on a technicality. Wow, another shocker. CREW sums it up nicely:

“The Senate Ethics Committee has once again done what it does best: nothing.

I wonder if the Senate Republicans gave him another standing ovation? That might be something. And poor Mr. Super Tuber just can't get no respect from his buddies.

No, not Cheney and Libby. Not yet, anyway. But still, this is pretty good considering that Alberto Gonzalez went out of his way to try to derail this. We talked about Dusty and Brent's Excellent Adventures before.

DownWithTyranny :

A federal grand jury handed down indictments for Dusty Foggo and Brent Wilkes today in a major blow against the systemic corruption that has kept the GOP fat and sassy. Just before noon the A.P. reported that Foggo, Bush's eyes and ears (and grabby hands) inside the CIA-- he was a political operative and hack-- was charged with fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in conjunction with the ongoing and expanding "Duke" Cunningham case. Wilkes, who had received as much as $100 million in illicit Bush Regime contracts, many through the connivance of Foggo and Cunningham, was charged with conspiring to bribe Cunningham. A third crooked Republican, John Michael, nephew of convicted GOP bigwig Thomas Kontogiannis, was also charged. The Kontogiannis connection is particularly dangerous to the Bush Regime since Cunningham had brokered a presidential pardon for him (a pardon Kontogiannis claims he paid $400,000 for). Only Bush can grant a presidential pardon and no one has dared to ask him to return the $400,000.

Atrios

Noe found guilty on numerous counts, including (I think) multiple counts of forgery, document tampering, and money laundering, and one count of 1st degree felony theft...

As the Republican world turns...

IRAQ – NEOCON DARLING A WANTED MAN: In seven short months, Ahmad Chalabi has gone from being President Bush's special guest at the State of the Union (seated behind First Lady Laura Bush) to having an arrest warrant hanging over his head. An Iraqi judge issued an arrest warrant for the former darling of the Bush administration for counterfeiting Iraqi currency and money laundering. (He also has been under investigation for passing U.S. secrets to Iran.) His nephew, Salem Chalabi, the chief prosecutor in the case against Saddam Hussein, has also been charged with participation in the June murder of an Iraqi official who had been investigating the Chalabi family and the Iraqi National Congress for illegally seizing hundreds of properties after the U.S.-led invasion last year. The Los Angeles Times reports, "Supporters like Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz were not available for comment."

"The state's highest criminal court on Monday denied Rep.Tom DeLay's request that the money laundering charges against him be dismissed or sent back to a lower court for an immediate trial...read on"

The evil, liberal plot continues against Delay. Tom will have to include The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to be in on the conspiracy. I wonder what his emails to Abramoff would be right about now?

Texas prosecutor has issued subpoenas for bank records and other information of a defense contractor involved in the bribery case of a California congressman as part of the investigation of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
District Attorney Ronnie Earle issued subpoenas late Monday afternoon for California businessmen Brent Wilkes and Max Gelwix, records of Perfect Wave Technologies LLC, Wilkes Corp. and ADCS Inc. in connection with a contribution to a fundraising committee at the center of the investigation that led to DeLay's indictment on money laundering charges...read on"

Judd has more on the Wilkes connection.

Liars

"Media reports that U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay had convinced the state's highest court to hear his appeal were as widely circulated as they were, well, wrong. Justices for the Texas Court Criminal Appeals agreed merely to consider hearing DeLay's money laundering case. They never said they would accept the case, said Edward Marty, the court's general counsel. The erroneous media reports, which the San Antonio Express-News published in a wire story and displayed online, come from DeLay's spokesman, Kevin Madden, in an e-mail sent to reporters Tuesday evening, after courts had closed for the night. ...read on"