DeLay's Denial

Indicted House Majority Leader Calls Prosecutor A 'Partisan Fanatic'

(CBS/AP) 
The indictment stems from a plan DeLay helped set in motion in 2001 to help Republicans win control of the Texas House in the 2002 elections for the first time since Reconstruction.

Indicted with DeLay were two of his associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.

The grand jury's foreman, William Gibson, told The Associated Press that Earle didn't pressure members one way or the other. "Ronnie Earle didn't indict him. The grand jury indicted him," Gibson told The Associated Press in an interview at his home.

Gibson, 76, a retired sheriff's deputy in Austin, said of DeLay: "He's probably doing a good job. I don't have anything against him. Just something happened."

The Texas Republican temporarily stepped down from the No. 2 leadership post that he had held since 2002, as required by House rules.

Blunt said he was confident DeLay would be cleared of the allegations and return to his leadership job.

Criminal conspiracy is a state felony punishable by six months to two years in a state jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

Stewart reports that the White House quickly came to DeLay's defense, calling him a "good ally" – but carefully said little else.

"I think the president's view is that we need to let the legal process work," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

The indictment puts the Republicans — who control the White House, Senate and House — on the defensive. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., also is fending off questions of ethical improprieties. And less than a week ago, a former White House official was arrested in the investigation of Jack Abramoff, a high-powered lobbyist and fundraiser.

The indictment accused DeLay of a conspiracy to "knowingly make a political contribution" in violation of Texas law outlawing corporate contributions. It alleged that DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee accepted $155,000 from companies, including Sears Roebuck, and placed the money in an account.

The PAC then wrote a $190,000 check to an arm of the Republican National Committee and provided the committee a document with the names of Texas State House candidates and the amounts they were supposed to received in donations, the indictment said.

The indictment included a copy of the check.

The charge against the second-ranking, and most assertive Republican leader came on the final day of the grand jury's term. It followed earlier indictments of a state political action committee founded by DeLay and three of his political associates.

"The problem for DeLay and the Republican leadership, apart from the obvious one, is that these sorts of investigations, these sorts of criminal cases, tend to take on lives of their own," said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen.

"They tend to have unintended consequences once people start testifying under oath and start getting pressure to make deals with prosecutors. The story, in other words, doesn't end with this indictment."