Job #1 for the Texas legislature in 2007 needs to be taking the authority to investigate public corruption out of the local prosecutor's office in Austin and placing it with the state Attorney General where it belongs.

Look at what Ronnie Earle is up to now.

The Texas prosecutor who secured an indictment of Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) on money-laundering charges broadened the scope of his inquiry into election spending yesterday, demanding documents related to funds that passed through a nonprofit organization, the U.S. Family Network.

The group, which was founded in 1996 by DeLay's then-chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, received $500,000 in 1999 from the National Republican Congressional Committee and used some of the money to finance radio ads attacking Democrats. The Federal Election Commission fined the party in 2004 for its role in the funding.

The prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, sent subpoenas yesterday to Buckham; the group's former president, Christopher Geeslin; the NRCC; and the treasurer of DeLay's leadership political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority.

The subpoenas asked for all documents related to the $500,000 contribution, including any correspondence involving DeLay or Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe public officials and other crimes this week. The Washington Post reported Saturday that the largest donors to the U.S. Family Network were all associated with Abramoff. They contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the group before it folded in 2001.

Earle, an elected district attorney in Travis County, Tex., did not reveal in the subpoenas why he believes he has jurisdiction over the campaign spending. Carl Forti, a spokesman for the NRCC, told the Associated Press, "I'm going to call Roswell and warn them that Ronnie Earle is on the witch hunt for the Martians they have there," referring to the New Mexico city famous for an alleged UFO landing.

And that is precisely the problem with his actionsin this case -- Ronnie Earle is making it up as he goes along, just as he did with his original charges brought as part of his five days of grand jury shopping.

DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, has this to say.

DeLay's lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin, called Thursday's subpoenas "more opportunism" by Earle.

"He's just following the news," said DeGuerin. "What does it have to do with whether money that came to candidates in Texas was corporate or individually donated?"

Its all part of Earle's strategy to destroy Tom DeLay by any means available. I suspect the next step will be to demand that the trial be delayed until he gets the records and has time to thoroughly examine them -- right to a speedy trial be damned.

And remember -- this is the same prosecutor who subpoenaed membership and donation lists from groups that engaged in constitutionally protected political speech criticizing his conduct in the DeLay case. Ronnie Earle is simply a power-drunk partisan hack.

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Posted by: Greg at 07:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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