House Majority Leader Tom DeLay Indicted for Money Laundering and Conspiracy

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) was indicted by a Texas grand jury on one count of criminal conspiracy related to an alleged illegal campaign finance scheme. On October 3, a second grand jury indicted DeLay on the more serious offense of money laundering. The charges stemmed from allegations that DeLay and his associates illegally funneled $190,000 in corporate money into Texas state legislative races in 2002. Under Texas law, corporate contributions to political campaigns were prohibited.

Prosecutors alleged that DeLay’s political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), sent corporate funds to the Republican National Committee, which then sent the same amount back to Texas candidates, effectively laundering the prohibited corporate money. DeLay, who was the second-ranking Republican in the House and one of the most powerful figures in Congress, was forced to temporarily step down from his leadership position following the indictment.

His fall from power marked a significant moment in the broader Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and Republican congressional corruption of the mid-2000s. Though DeLay was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to three years in prison, a Texas appeals court overturned his conviction in 2013, ruling that the evidence was insufficient to support the charges. The case highlighted the vulnerability of campaign finance laws to creative circumvention schemes and the difficulty of prosecuting politically powerful figures.