Odor in the Court

The Tom DeLay money laundering trial continues in Austin amidst the common opinion that he will never be convicted.

This opinion stems in part from the fact that he is represented by Dick DeGuerin, one of Texas’s most outstanding criminal defense lawyers. DeGuerin, who once worked for legal legend Percy Foreman, has had a brilliant career representing such figures as David Koresh, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Billy Joe Shaver.

And then there’s the thought that even if convicted, an ultimate appeal to the Roberts Supreme Court could end up with a decision like last year’s Citizens United v FCC, which opened up the floodgates to corporate spending in federal elections.

DeLay blames underlings for any wrongdoing, saying he was out of the loop on the $190,000 money swap with the RNC. I suppose there’s nothing to stop Jim Ellis and Warren RoBold from saying in their trial that they were out of the loop on it and that DeLay did it all.

DeLay and DeGuerin had asked Judge Pat Priest for a change of venue for this trial, (which they postponed for years leaving them more time to complain about not getting a speedy trial) saying that he could not get a fair trial in Travis county. The Judge wasn’t having any of it, and a jury from the city of Austin Texas, which DeLay gerrymandered into three districts trying to unseat Rep. Lloyd Doggett, will decide the verdict.

Yesterday the jury heard what might be the smoking gun in DeLay’s case; a tape of his testimony in 2005 that he knew about the money transfer before it happened and thought it was legal. He says now that he’s being “misinterpreted.”

The Chronicle’s been running the story in the ‘B’ section, No doubt it will be on the front page when the verdict comes in. For more colorful coverage you might look at Hal at Half Empty. As Juanita says, this could be more fun than recess in heaven.