[Mb-civic] DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe - Washington Post UPDATED 4 PM

[William Swiggard]

DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe
House Majority Leader Says He Will Temporarily Step Down, But Denounces 
Charges As 'Reckless'

By William Branigin, Amy Goldstein and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; 4:00 PM

A Texas grand jury today indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) on a criminal 
count of conspiring with two political associates to violate state 
campaign finance law, and DeLay announced he would temporarily step down 
as House majority leader.

DeLay later denounced the charge against him as "reckless," and he 
acerbically blasted the Democratic district attorney prosecuting the 
case as "an unabashed partisan zealot" seeking revenge for Democratic 
political defeats in Texas.

The indictment was disclosed in Travis County, Tex., on the last day of 
a grand jury investigating a campaign financing scheme involving 
allegedly illegal use of corporate funds.

DeLay, 58, attended a meeting in the office of House Speaker Dennis 
Hastert (R-Ill.) shortly after receiving word of the indictment and said 
afterward he notified Hastert that he would "temporarily step aside" as 
majority leader. GOP House rules require that any member of Congress who 
is indicted must step down from a leadership position. However, there is 
no requirement that DeLay leave his congressional seat.

"In accordance with the rules of the House Republican Conference, I will 
temporarily step aside as floor leader in order to win exoneration from 
these baseless charges," DeLay told reporters.

"This morning, in an act of blatant political partisanship, a rogue 
district attorney in Travis County, Texas, named Ronnie Earle charged me 
with one count of criminal conspiracy: a reckless charge wholly 
unsupported by the facts," DeLay said, reading from a prepared 
statement. "This is one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in 
American history. It's a sham and Mr. Earle knows it."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/28/AR2005092800270.html?referrer=email
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