home

DeLay Office E-Mails Prove Helpful to Feds

Newsweek reports the feds obtained 1,000 emails from Tom DeLay's lawyers around Christmas. Along with Tony Rudy's guilty plea and cooperation agreement, could DeLay be in trouble?

Although court papers filed by prosecutors with the plea contain no direct allegations against DeLay, the documents for the first time refer to an unnamed "Representative No. 2" (who is DeLay) whose office repeatedly assisted Abramoff and his clients. The papers allege that Rudy, while still working for DeLay, arranged for the congressman to sign a letter opposing a postal-rate increase to aid an Abramoff client and helped kill an antigambling bill opposed by another Abramoff client. At the same time, Abramoff arranged for $86,000 in consulting payments to be made to Rudy's wife, Lisa, according to the documents. (She was not charged.)

And here's a revelation: None were from DeLay himself because he doesn't e-mail.

[DeLay lawyer] Cullen says DeLay had no knowledge of improper dealings by his aides. (He also says the e-mails he gave the Feds don't include any directly from DeLay because the congressman, unlike his aides, doesn't e-mail.) DeLay "has never taken any official action based on anything other than his conscience," he says.

Who else may they implicate? Newsweek mentions aide Ed Buckham and Ohio Rep. Bob Ney.

If you're hungry for some e-mails on Abramoff, here are hundreds of Abramoff-related emails that were introduced during the Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings run first by Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO), and later, by Chairman John McCain (R-AZ). [Via Wampum.]

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft