LATEST PHOTOS ◊ Tom DeLay Perp Walk ☺ ☻

Travis County Justice Center

«« click pic to enlarge

Thumbs Up for CT man!

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Purple ink?
Guess DeLay got to vote 10 times …

“Now Ronnie Earle has the mug shot he wanted,” said DeLay lawyer Dick DeGuerin, referring to the Travis County district attorney who sought the indictments. “I wanted to avoid the circus. . . . He wanted a perp walk, and we did not want to do it.”


Video grab of former House Majority leader Tom DeLay's lawyer Dick DeGuerin holding Delay's booking sheet outside of the Harris County sherrif's office in Houston October 20, 2005. NBC/Reuters

DeLay wants new judge, new trial location

Citing partisan differences, U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, wants a new judge to hear his conspiracy and money-laundering charges somewhere other than Travis County. DeLay’s lawyer on Thursday asked state District Judge Bob Perkins, a Democrat, to remove himself from the case because of donations the judge made to the Democratic Party, its candidates and the political organization, Moveon.org.

Read more below the fold »»  

By challenging the judge’s impartiality, lawyer Dick DeGuerin
is taking a page from his playbook a dozen years ago when Perkins removed himself from a trial of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison because the judge gave money to her Senate opponent. DeGuerin also got that trial on charges of official misconduct moved to Fort Worth where he won an acquittal in an abbreviated trial.

“It’s been non-stop,” said D’Ann Underwood, Perkins’ judicial aide, of the national media’s focus on the DeLay case. During her 26 years, Underwood has seen other notable politicians come before the judge — Texas Speaker Gib Lewis and Hutchison to name two. “But it wasn’t ever like this,” she said.

DeLay sidestepped news reporters awaiting his booking in Austin or his home county by quietly being fingerprinted, photographed and released on $10,000 bail at a Houston jail, instead. The whole affair took about 30 minutes.

“Now Ronnie Earle has the mug shot he wanted,” said DeLay lawyer Dick DeGuerin, referring to the Travis County district attorney who sought the indictments. “I wanted to avoid the circus. . . . He wanted a perp walk, and we did not want to do it.”

DeLay also doesn’t want to be tried in Travis County.

In his filing, DeGuerin cited 34 contributions from Perkins to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, the Travis County Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, and 2002 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez, among others, over the past three years. The donations ranged from $35 to the Texas Democratic Party to $1,000 to the Travis County Democratic Party.

DeGuerin’s motion asked Perkins to step aside or, at least, allow Judge B.B. Schraub, the presiding judge of the 3rd Administrative Judicial Region, to decide whether Perkins should preside. Schraub, a Seguin Republican, was re-appointed to the administrative post by Gov. Rick Perry in 2002.

Travis County jurors also would be hostile to DeLay, DeGuerin argued. He said the “seemingly interminable” investigation of DeLay by Earle, a Democrat, has generated “massive and unrelenting media coverage” in Travis County, “one of the last enclaves of the Democratic Party in Texas.”

DeGuerin said DeLay is a controversial politician whose efforts to split Travis County into three congressional districts in 2003 remains highly unpopular locally. The filing included more than 40 affidavits by local residents saying DeLay could not get a fair trial locally.

Also, on Thursday DeLay’s legal team filed a brief arguing that the state conspiracy statute does not apply to the election code or to money-laundering and the indictments should be thrown out. He also wrote that DeLay’s alleged offense — laundering $190,000 of corporate money through the Republican National Committee — occurred more than three years ago. There is a three-year deadline for pursuing a money-laundering charge.

Judge Perkins is not expected to rule on any pre-trial motions today. Instead, he probably will schedule arguments on DeLay’s motions next month when he is hearing similar motions from DeLay’s co-defendants, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis.

John Colyandro ran Texans for a Republican Majority, a committee DeLay created to help elect Republican state lawmakers who, in turn, would redraw congressional districts. Jim Ellis was DeLay’s right-hand fundraiser in Washington and a consultant to the Texas Committee.

State law prohibits spending corporate money on campaigns, but a committee can spend it on administrative overhead.

In the final weeks of the 2002 campaign, Colyandro sent a blank check to Ellis, who had scheduled a meeting with Terry Nelson with the Republican National Committee. He filled in the check for $190,000 — drawn from corporate funds — and gave it to Nelson. Two weeks later, an arm of the RNC gave the same amount in political donations to seven Texas legislative candidates.

Bill of Indictment :: The State of Texas vs.
John Dominick Colyandro, James Walter Ellis, & Thomas Dale DeLay

Dick De Guerin’s Campagne Contributions
From Democrat pre 1997 to mostly Republican thereafter. One difference with the 1993 trial, Rove may not be on the side of DeLay to provide the spin in the Texas media today.

Media Matters :: Limbaugh parroted DeLay’s baseless claim that
Democratic Party leaders conspired with Texas DA to indict DeLay

Robert Ney and Tom Feeney To Follow??

Extended coverage is justified, as is seen so far :: The DeLay Cartel – Abramoff – Norquist – Ney, amazing how broad the indictments went last month!

More to come, perhaps Robert Ney (R-OH) and Tom Feeney (R-FL). WOW – I didn’t realize the sleaze went so deep it touched SunCruz Casino and a murder wrap.

So our nominees for “The Abramoff 6” are Tom DeLay (TX), Bob Ney (OH-18) Conrad Burns (R-MT), Dave Vitter (R-LA), Tom Feeney (FL-24), and Dan Rohrabacher (CA-46)

Lobbyist Accuses Ex-Partner in Fraud
Jack Abramoff says Adam Kidan hid his business failures and disbarment
By Curt Anderson

MIAMI (AP) Sept. 26, 2005 — Prominent Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and New York businessman Adam Kidan were once good friends who had known each other since their college days in the Washington area. They stayed in touch over the years and became business partners in a 2000 deal to buy a lucrative Florida fleet of gambling boats.

Now, both are charged in a federal grand jury indictment with fraud in connection with their purchase of SunCruz Casinos. And Abramoff says in court documents that he was hoodwinked by Kidan, who Abramoff contends kept secret his past business failures and disbarment as a lawyer.

“Had I known these facts about Kidan, I would never have signed” the SunCruz loan papers central to the federal indictment, Abramoff said in one of thousands of pages of court documents filed in response to a lawsuit brought against Abramoff, Kidan, SunCruz and others by two lenders after the ill-fated purchase.

Kidan never responded to Abramoff’s allegations nor did he answer the lawsuit filed by SunCruz financiers Foothill Capital Corp. and Citadel Equity Fund Ltd. A default judgment was entered against Kidan in the case. But the lawsuit was dismissed on Sept. 1 without damages being awarded, shortly after Abramoff and Kidan were indicted.

Kidan’s lawyer in the Florida criminal case, Martin Jaffe, said he would not comment on Abramoff’s claims. A telephone message left at Kidan’s home in New York was not returned.

  • GOP Crime Wave Only Scratches Surface ◊ by Paul Rosenberg
        Tue Oct 18th, 2005 at 07:20:43 AM PST

    Update [2005-10-21 06:00AM PST by Oui]:

    Adam R. Kidan and Jack A. Abramoff Indicted on Charges of Conspiracy and Wire Fraud

    BOB NEY (OHIO-18)

    Michael Scanlon, former DeLay press aide, helped his partner, Jack Abramoff, in acquiring the floating casino company, SunCruz. He persuaded Ney to tout Adam Kidan in the Congressional Record. Ney made a floor statement in the House in October 2000, praising Kidan for his “renowned reputation for honesty and integrity.” (Congressional Record, 10/26/00; Roll Call, 12/6/04)

    Abramoff represented the Tigua Tribe in Texas, who paid him $4.2 million in lobbying fees to help re-open their casinos, after losing their gaming license in Feb. 2002. Abramoff assured them he could help by having legislation attached to an election reform bill sponsored by Rep. Ney and Sen Chris Dodd. Abramoff and Ney assured the tribe that Dodd had agreed to attach the legislation onto the bill. Dodd claimed he did not know about the deal struck for the Tiguas between Abramoff and Ney until the night before the bill was to be voted on. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3/23/05)

    THE HILL – Robert Ney “Mayor of Capitol Hill”
    Oversaw the Process for Awarding the Wireless Contract

    Congressman Bob Ney  

    Robert Ney Denies Link in Award Foxcom Wireless –
    Lawmaker: No Ties Between Contract and Lobbyist Abramoff
    By PAUL M. KRAWZAK, Copley Washington Bureau Writer

    WASHINGTON – A congressional committee led by Rep. Bob Ney awarded a $3 million wireless contract to a telecommunications provider that had retained and made contributions to a now-indicted lobbyist with close ties to Ney. The lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, has been charged with fraud in connection with an unrelated matter, his purchase of a Fort Lauderdale casino cruise line in 2001.

    Ney, R-St. Clairsville, denied through a spokesman that there was any link between his approval, as chairman of the House Administration Committee, of a contract to install cellular antennas in a House office complex, and Abramoff’s role as a lobbyist for the recipient, MobileAccess Network.

    “Ney never met with Abramoff on this matter,” his spokesman Brian Walsh said. “He was not lobbied by Abramoff.”

    Federal investigators are continuing what has been described as a wide-ranging probe of other dealings involving Abramoff, including his receipt of millions of dollars in lobbying fees from tribal clients. The company that won the wireless contract, Vienna, Va. based MobileAccess, also is part of the probe.

    MobileAccess, a provider of fiber-optic transmission systems, was based in Israel and doing business as Foxcom when it won the contract in late 2002. The company employed Abramoff as a lobbyist, paying his team $280,000 over two years, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The company also made a $50,000 contribution to Abramoff’s charity, the Capitol Athletic Foundation.

    When Ney approved the contract, Ney did not know that MobileAccess had given $50,000 to Abramoff’s foundation, Walsh said. Ney has known Abramoff for years. The congressman has received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions that either were donated by Abramoff or sent to Ney at Abramoff’s request.

    In 2002, when the wireless contract was awarded, Ney was involved with Abramoff on several fronts. He unsuccessfully sought to insert a provision in a voting reform bill that would have benefited one of Abramoff’s clients, the Tigua Indian tribe in Texas.

    That same year, Ney joined Abramoff in a golfing trip to Scotland that the congressman said he thought was being financed by a public interest group. The group later said it had no knowledge of the trip, which was organized by Abramoff.

    U.S. Congress Chooses Foxcom Wireless Solutions to Improve Cellular Reception
    By TheMarker.com Staff   – 09/20/2001 05:18 PM EDT

    Foxcom Wireless has won a $4.5 million tender from the United States House of Representatives for solutions that improve reception by mobile phone network.

    A company source told TheMarker.com that Foxcom expects to end 2001 with $12 million revenue, compared with $3 million for 2000. The company is about to complete a $10 million financing round, the sources added.

    Foxcom Wireless was spun off from OnePath Networks in 1998. Its technology delivers cellular communications over optical fiber networks, resulting in improved reception and increased capacity applicable to most kinds of cellular technology.

    The company’s product, called Litenna, facilitates cellular reception in tunnels, parking lots, and skyscrapers. It has been installed in various skyscrapers in Israel, such as the twin Azrieli Towers, Platinum Tower, Ocif Tower, which is the highest in Israel, IBM Tower and the Israeli parliament building (which is not, it should be said, a skyscraper).

    In the last quarter of 2000 Foxcom Wireless secured $11.5 million at $57 million post-money company value.

    Investors include the Apax Partners group, Israel Seed Partners, Genesis Partners, AIG Orion, Eurofund, STI Ventures, CDB Web Tech, KTB, Dain Rauscher Wessels, and Unico.

    Foxcom Wireless is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, and maintains an R&D outfit in Lod, Israel. The company has 80 employees.

    Foxcom Wireless reinvents itself
    Globes, April 8, 2003

    In its second incarnation, Foxcom Wireless now provides support for cellular and wireless networks and their integration.

    Wireless networks providers are expanding their business by focusing placing signal enhancement and distribution systems in key locations to enable opportunistic users to surf from public places. Meanwhile, the large market for office wireless networks stood shamefacedly on the sidelines. Long before we knew that someday we would surf the wireless web from a café, company IT managers were searching for a way to give employees wireless mobility within buildings. The search began in factories, but later spread to offices, university campuses, hospitals, and elsewhere.

    Ostensibly, placing wireless base stations in strategic locations ought to give them the necessary range, but it turned out that the installation costs for multi-storey buildings was immense, because the base stations could not transmit between floors.

    The solution was derived from longstanding cellular operations: an office distribution system for cellular signals received from an external antenna. Companies offered this service to enable cellular calls within buildings, and it turns out that the concept can also be applied to wireless networks.

    Foxcom Wireless was spun off from Jerusalem start-up Foxcom (now a division of OnePath Networks) in 1998. Foxcom develops and markets fiber optic solutions for the professional satellite, broadcast, and MDU (multi-dwelling unit) markets.

    CROSS-POSTED @DKOS :: PLEASE RECOMMEND

    JUST IN FRONT OF SUSANHU’S DIARY ::
    FITZ’S TARGETS: THEY WHO REVEAL NATIONAL SECURITY SECRETS