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AUSTIN — A Texas grand jury on Wednesday indicted Sugar Land Republican Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, forcing the House majority leader to temporarily relinquish his post.
DeLay, 58, was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.
DeLay helped set in motion a plan in 2001 to help Republicans win control of the Texas House in the 2002 elections, which they did for the first time since Reconstruction.
With GOP control of the Texas legislature, DeLay then engineered a redistricting plan that enabled the GOP take six Texas seats in the U.S. House away from Democrats — including one lawmaker switching parties — in 2004 and build its majority in Congress.
A defiant DeLay insisted he was innocent and called the prosecutor a "fanatic."
"I have done nothing wrong ... I am innocent," DeLay told a Capitol Hill news conference in which he criticized the prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, repeatedly.
Earle, a Democrat, wouldn't respond to DeLay's comments implying that Earle has a political vendetta against him.
"Our job is to prosecute abuses of power and to bring those abuses to the public," Earle said.
DeLay is the first House leader to be indicted while in office in at least a century, according to congressional historians.
While DeLay retains his seat representing Texas' 22nd congressional district, the suburbs southwest of Houston, he said he would temporarily step aside as majority leader pursuant to rules of the House Republican Conference.
Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he will recommended that Rep. David Dreier of California step into those duties. Some of the duties may go to the GOP whip, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri. The Republican rank and file may meet as early as Wednesday night to act on Hastert's recommendation.
Criminal conspiracy is a state felony punishable by six months to two years in a state jail and a fine of up to $10,000. The potential two-year sentence forces DeLay to step down under House Republican rules.
At the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said President Bush, a fellow Texan, still considers DeLay a friend and an effective leader in Congress.
"U.S. Rep. DeLay is a good ally, a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people," McClellan said.
The indictment accuses DeLay of a conspiracy to "knowingly make a political contribution" in violation of Texas law outlawing corporate contributions. It alleges that DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee accepted $155,000 from companies, including Sears Roebuck, and placed the money in an account.
The PAC then wrote a $190,000 check to an arm of the Republican National Committee and provided the committee a document with the names of Texas State House candidates and the amounts they were supposed to received in donations.
The indictment, which included a copy of the check, came on the final day of the grand jury's term. It followed an indictment earlier this month of Texans for a Republican on charges of accepting corporate contributions for use in state legislative races. In all, there have been 41 indictments, including four against corporations that have been resolved.
Texas law prohibits corporate money from being used to advocate the election or defeat of candidates; it is allowed only for administrative expenses.
William Gibson, 76, a former sheriff's deputy in Austin, was the grand jury foreman. He wouldn't discuss specifically what evidence was presented that swayed the jury to indict.
"He's probably doing a good job. I don't have anything against him," Gibson said of DeLay. "Just something happened. I have no grudge against the man."
As for DeLay's claims that the indictment was politically motivated, Gibson said: "Ronnie Earle didn't indict him. The grand jury indicted him."
Another grand jury will be appointed around the first of October, so the investigation is ongoing, Earle said.
DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said he prefers a trial as soon as possible, at least by the end of the year. Asked when DeLay would turn himself in, DeGuerin said, "I'm going to keep from having Tom DeLay taken down in handcuffs, photographed and fingerprinted. That's uncalled for."
Democrats have kept up a crescendo of criticism of DeLay's ethics, citing three times last year that the House ethics committee admonished DeLay for his conduct.
Former Rep. Chris Bell, a Houston Democrat who lost the primary election in his newly-drawn district under DeLay's redistricting plan, also filed an ethics complaint against DeLay. He accused him of taking bribes, money laundering and giving special favors to Republican donors.
The House ethics committee said the complaint was filled with exaggerations, but it did admonish DeLay for appearing to link political donations from a Kansas energy company to legislative help on an energy bill. The committee also criticized him for improperly involving federal authorities in a search for a private plane Democrats used to flee Texas to avoid voting on the redistricting plan.
Bell said Wednesday that the need for ethics reform will not end with DeLay's indictment "or even his conviction."
"Insurance companies bought themselves a legislative majority to stifle long-overdue reforms, and big donors of all stripes have long since put the bit in (Gov.) Rick Perry's mouth. Texas is the national case study for why reform is such a powerful issue right now," Bell said.
Democrat Martin Frost, a Dallas-area congressman for 26 years before losing in November in a redrawn district, said the indictment shows "Tom DeLay is not above the law."
"DeLay has a long history of nuzzling up against the line between legal and illegal and ethical and unethical," said Frost, now a commentator with Fox News Channel.
As a sign of loyalty to DeLay after the grand jury returned indictments against three of his associates, House Republicans last November repealed a rule requiring any of their leaders to step aside if indicted. The rule was reinstituted in January after lawmakers returned to Washington from the holidays fearing the repeal might create a backlash from voters.
Rep. Henry Bonilla, the San Antonio Republican who sponsored the rule change, said the state's Republican congressional delegation believes the indictment is politically motivated and "has absolutely no basis."
"Those of us who have known Tom for many years know that he's a man of strong character, an honest man," Bonilla said.
Aside from the admonishment of the ethics committee last year, DeLay, an 11-term congressman, is at the center of a political storm this year over lobbyists paying his and other lawmakers' tabs for expensive travel abroad.
