Texas Justice in Action

The case against Rep. Tom DeLay continues to disintegrate. On Friday, the prosecutors handling the money-laundering charges against DeLay and his associates admitted that they lack a piece of physical evidence to back up their primary claim:

Indictments against DeLay, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro state that Ellis gave "a document that contained the names of several candidates for the Texas House" to a Republican National Committee official in 2002 in a scheme to swap $190,000 in restricted corporate money for the same amount of money from individuals that could be legally used by Texas candidates.

But prosecutors said Friday in court that they only had a "similar" list and not the one allegedly received by then-RNC Deputy Director Terry Nelson. Late in the day, they released a list of 17 Republican candidates, but only seven are alleged to have received money in the scheme.

Of course, this does not prove DeLay's innocence in any way, and I think the invocation of Joe McCarthy by Jim Ellis's attorney was clearly a bit of bluster. But remember that there is supposed to be a presumption of innocence--to allege that a document exists, then say you don't have it, then manufacture a list that you say is "similar" does not seem like the kind of way to build a case strong enough to overcome this presumption. But indict away--clearly the mainstream media has lost its appetite for reporting the story now that it's not going "the right way," and the damage to DeLay's reputation (such as it was) is done.

Tags: DeLay, Tom DeLay, Politics, Republicans, Congress, Ethics