DeLay Lawyers Seek Dismissals

Attorneys for Rep. Tom DeLay are hoping a judge will dismiss the conspiracy and money laundering charges against the former House majority leader so he can regain the powerful seat.

DeLay is to appear in court Tuesday before a judge who will decide whether the criminal case should continue to trial.

DeLay had to relinquish his leadership post in Congress after he was indicted in September. His attorneys are pushing for a December trial in hopes that DeLay is cleared so he can regain his title before Congress returns to session in January. Otherwise, lawmakers could elect a new majority leader.

"DeLay's attorneys already have established that they are going to fight over every scrap of this case and they've already succeeded in replacing one judge," says CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen (audio). "This hearing is about a purely legal issue — whether Texas law permits the charge against DeLay. If the judge says yes, the case proceeds. If he says no, we'll likely see an appeal."

Tuesday's hearing is DeLay's first before Senior Judge Pat Priest, who was appointed to the case after DeLay's attorneys succeeded in having the first judge removed because of his campaign contributions to Democratic candidates and causes.

DeLay is accused of funneling $190,000 in restricted corporate money from his Texas political action committee to an arm of the Republican National Committee, which then gave the same amount of money to Texas legislative candidates in 2002. The direct use of corporate money for political purposes is illegal in Texas.

DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, has filed multiple legal briefs detailing why he believes the charges against the lawmaker should be dismissed.

Legal experts in Texas are saying there is a thin chance that the charges could be dropped, reports Scott Braddock of CBS radio affiliate KTRH. "Dick DeGuerin is known as a very smart lawyer throughout Texas and has been able to pull this kind of thing off in the past."

The defense contends, for example, that DeLay shouldn't be charged with conspiracy to violate the election code because the law wasn't on the books until 2003, a year after DeLay's alleged offenses occurred.

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has said state law has long defined conspiracy as an agreement to commit any felony, including a violation of the election code.

DeLay's attorneys also want to have the trial moved from liberal-leaning Austin, where they say he cannot get a fair trial, to his home county of Fort Bend.

"It's the only county in Texas that went to John Kerry in the last presidential election," says Braddock (audio). "The defense says that most people in Travis County would not be able to be fair to Tom DeLay, since he is the former Republican leader, and they are very Democratic in central Texas."

However, that issue likely won't be decided until a later hearing.

Meanwhile, a former aide to DeLay who pleaded guilty in a federal bribery probe involving members of Congress has been cooperating with prosecutors since July. The disclosure about Michael Scanlon, who also is an ex-partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, comes in an investigation of $80 million that the two men collected from six American Indian tribes.

"There have been a lot of conversations" between Scanlon and federal prosecutors over the past five months, Scanlon attorney Plato Cacheris said Monday night. "He had a lot to say."

Scanlon pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to bribe public officials. Under the plea before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle, Scanlon will pay restitution totaling more than $19 million to Indian tribes that he admitted had been defrauded.

Abramoff and Scanlon collected more than $80 million between 2001 and 2004 from six Indian tribes with casinos.

On Friday, Scanlon was charged with conspiracy. On Monday, the Justice Department's statement of facts which Scanlon signed went beyond the earlier charging document, revealing that by means of trips, tickets to sporting events and campaign contributions Scanlon and Abramoff "provided a stream of things of value to public officials in exchange for a series of official acts."