Dick DeGuerin, Tom DeLay's lawyer, is confident DeLay's conviction will be reversed on appeal. First there's the legal argument on the money laundering statute, which includes. [More..]

Former House Speaker Tom DeLay was sentenced today to three years in state prison for his conviction on money laundering charges.

Senior Judge Pat Priest sentenced him to the three-year term on the conspiracy charge. He also sentenced him to five years in prison on the money laundering charge but allowed DeLay to accept 10 years of probation instead of more prison time.

The judge granted his request to be freed on bail after he is booked at the county jail. At sentencing, DeLay told the judge he was innocent and the charges were politically motivated.

"I can't be remorseful for something I don't think I did," DeLay said.

The appeal will take months, if not years.

More bad news for former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. The grand jury has returned an 89 page racketeering Indictment charging Kwame, his father, Bernard Kilpatrick and others with "13 alleged fraudulent schemes in the awarding of contracts in the city's Department of Water and Sewerage." The Indictment is the result of a six year investigation into Kwame's actions while serving as a Michigan legislator and later as Mayor of Detroit.

He resigned as mayor in 2008 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in state court. He's now in prison for violating probation in that case and is awaiting trial in federal court on tax and fraud charges related to how he spent money from a nonprofit fund.

Lawyers for both Kwame and his father promise a vigorous defense. And the FBI says the investigation is ongoing. ""It's not going to be done until we say it's done."

No happy Thanksgiving for Tom DeLay. The jury found him guilty of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The penalty on one count is 2 to 20 and from 5 to 99 years on the other. He could also receive probation. Texas has jury sentencing, but DeLay previously opted for the judge to sentence him.

His attorney, Dick DeGuerin, says the verdict won't withstand appellate scrutiny:

Mr. DeGuerin said Mr. DeLay would try to convince an appeals court the money-laundering statute should never had been applied to the money swap — because the original donations were legal and also because the donations to the state candidates came out of a different account than the one in which the corporate donations were deposited. “It will never stand,” Mr. DeGuerin said.

Update: The jury has now asked for DeLay's interviews with reporters. The judge has told the lawyers to be prepared to work late tonight.

After prosecutors played the tape of the Wallace interview during the trial, DeLay said it told his side of the story so well that he didn’t need to testify. In the Statesman interview, DeLay said, “I could have stopped it, but why would I?” He added that he considered the money swap a legal transaction that both political parties had done in the past.

The Statesman says it's back to what DeLay know and when did he know it. Have they rejected his defense that the money swap was legal? [More...]

The jury in Tom DeLay's money laundering trial had a lot of questions for the judge today. The judge isn't happy. He thinks they are focusing on things outside the trial.

"I'm afraid you may be getting away from the decisions you must make," Priest told the jurors.

What kind of answer is that? Team DeLay views the questions as a good sign:

"They are zeroing in right on the weaknesses of the state's case," said Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's lead attorney.

[More...]

Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is speaking out from prison. He regrets his guilty plea. His lawyers took advantage of his weakened state in getting him to sign the plea agreement. (Translation: He didn't get as much of a sentence reduction as he hoped for.)

[T]he former congressman now says that at the time he was physically weak from having dropped close to 100 pounds from cancer treatments and other maladies. He said he had not eaten for two weeks when his lawyers came to him with the proposed 33-page plea agreement.

He said he balked at first, but lawyers Mark Holscher and K. Lee Blalack told him if he challenged the charges it would cost him millions to fight the case, and he would risk spending the rest of his life in prison.

Now, he realizes his votes for tougher sentencing as a Congressman were misguided, and he plans to make up for it once he's released. For example, he now thinks the severe crack cocaine penalties were wrong: [More...]

After 8 hours of questioning 91 potential jurors, jury selection was completed in the money laundering trial of former House Speaker Tom DeLay. There are six women and six men.

Nobody wanted to be seen as a Republican. The prosecutor said:

Mr. DeLay is a Republican. I'm a Democrat. This case has nothing to do with that. All that matters is, 'Can you put political feelings you may have (aside) and give both sides a fair trial?'"

DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said:

"It's not about whether you like Tom DeLay. I'm a Democrat and I like him," DeGuerin told potential jurors. "That's all we want: a fair jury and a fair trial."

[More...]

It only took five years to bring Tom DeLay to trial in Texas on state charges of money laundering and conspiracy. Jury selection begins today in Austin. In August, DeLay lost his bid to have the trial moved from the predominantly Democratic city.

From the Austin-American Statesman:

DeLay and two associates — Jim Ellis and John Colyandro — are accused by prosecutors of taking $190,000 in corporate money collected by a state political action committee DeLay started and illegally funneling it through the Republican National Committee in Washington to help elect GOP state legislative candidates in 2002. Under Texas law, corporate money cannot be directly used for political campaigns.

DeLay has one of the best attorneys in the country, Dick DeGuerin of Houston, who also is a good friend of mine. Dick says there's no crime and the charges are the result of a political witchhunt by former Travis County DA Ronnie Earle. [More..]

The feds busted a bunch of legislators, lobbyists and powerful businessmen in Alabama today:

The indictment alleges a sprawling conspiracy to buy votes in the legislature that would benefit the owners of casinos. Four state senators are charged with agreeing to accept — or in some cases, demanding — bribes in the form of campaign contributions or campaign appearances by country music stars. Two casino operators, Ronald Gilley and Milton McGregor, are charged with overseeing the conspiracy, and three lobbyists with carrying it out. An employee of Mr. Gilley’s and an employee of the state legislature were also charged.

Electronic bingo machines were the issue. Some legislators reportedly wore wires to rat out their associates.

Nicholas Marsh, age 37, was one of the prosecutors in the Ted Stevens case. He and other prosecutors in the case have been under investigation for misconduct due to their withholding of evidence in the case. Yesterday, Marsh committed suicide.

Marsh's lawyer, Robert Luskin (yes, also Karl Rove's former lawyer), says the investigation was coming to a close and he would have been shocked had Marsh not been exonerated.

After Attorney General Eric Holder moved to dismiss Stevens' convictions, the Judge appointed Washington attorney Henry Schuelke to investigate the actions of the prosecutors. Marsh was transferred from the Public Integrity Section to the Office of International affairs during the investigation.

How sad that at age 37, Mr. Marsh thought suicide was his best option. I hope there was some other reason besides the potential fear of losing his job.

Robert Blagojevich gets some welcome news: The Government is dropping its case against him and won't be refiling charges.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Reid Schar said the government was dropping two counts of extortion conspiracy and one count each of wire fraud and extortion because of "the disparity in the roles" of the two brothers and "in the interests of justice."

I'm glad the Government made the right call, see my post, Enough about Rod, Lets Talk About Robert.