Thomas DeLay, former United States House Majority Leader known as “The Hammer”, was sentenced by a Texas judge to three years in prison on money laundering charges. In November 2010, he was found guilty of funnelling corporate contributions to State legislature candidates.
While DeLay was taken into custody by bailiffs following his conviction on Monday, he was released the same day after his lawyers posted bail for $10,000.
According to reports, presiding Judge Pat Priest said to DeLay during the conviction proceedings that it was necessary “for those who write the laws to be bound by them", and refused to entertain DeLay's claim that he was the victim of political persecution and was unfairly accused of violating the law for doing what “everybody was doing”.
Maintaining a breezy casualness in media interactions throughout his trial, DeLay had earlier commented that he blamed a “rogue” district attorney and Democrats for indicting him so that he would be removed from his position in Congress. He was also quoted saying that the district attorney “shopped six grand juries...before he found a grand jury just sworn in 30 minutes to indict me.”
Community service
DeLay, who was initially slapped with a felony charge in 2005 for siphoning $190,000 in corporate donations and passing the monies on to Republican candidates in the Texas State Legislature, was also sentenced to five years in prison for a conviction under that charge. However Judge Priest allowed DeLay ten years of community service instead of time in prison.
DeLay had also been linked to Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who was convicted of three criminal felony counts relating to “defrauding of American-Indian tribes and corruption of public officials”.
DeLay earned his nickname for his disciplinarian role as Majority Party Whip when Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives in 1995.
In that role he also played a key part in pushing through the House vote impeaching former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Although he was elevated to the role of Majority Leader in 2003, he relinquished that position after his 2005 indictment.
DeLay was notably associated with the K Street Project , described as “an effort to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire only Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials”.
Ironically DeLay’s conviction comes in the wake of a persistent campaign by President Barack Obama’s government to limit, at the federal level, the influence of corporations and lobby firms on public policy.
These efforts however, suffered a setback in January when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United case that political spending by corporations in candidate elections would be permitted, free of government bans, on the basis of protecting the First Amendment’s free speech principle.
DeLay is expected to appeal Monday’s verdict in higher courts.
