Gambling Interests Funded DeLay Trip

[paineinthearse]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/050312/photos_pl/mdf892524&e=10&ncid=1617


A U.S. Indian tribe and a gambling services company made donations to a Washington-based public policy group to cover most of a $70,000 trip to Britain in mid-2000 by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay(R), the Washington Post Reported March 12, 2005. That week-long trip took place two months before DeLay helped kill legislation opposed by the tribe and the company, the paper wrote in the article posted on its Web site. DeLay is seen with a security officer at the White House in this December 6 file photo. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/politics_delay_dc

Gambling Interests Funded DeLay Trip - Paper

Sat Mar 12,12:48 AM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Indian tribe and a gambling services company made donations to a Washington-based public policy group to cover most of a $70,000 trip to Britain in mid-2000 by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the Washington Post Reported in its Saturday edition. That week-long trip took place two months before DeLay helped kill legislation opposed by the tribe and the company, the paper wrote in the article posted on its Web site.

According to the paper, the Texas Republican lawmaker's financial disclosure documents listed the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy Research as the sponsor for that trip. However, a person involved in arranging the trip said a lobbyist suggested the trip and then arranged for $25,000 checks to be sent by two of his clients. Dates on the checks from those clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and eLottery Inc, coincided with the day DeLay left on the trip, according to grants documents the Washington Post said it reviewed.

Both The Choctaw and eLottery said they were unaware the money was being used to finance the lawmaker's travels, the paper wrote. House ethics rules allow lawmakers and their staff to have travel expenses paid only for officially connected travel and only by organizations directly connected to the trips. The rules also require that lawmakers accurately report the people or organizations paying for the trips.

To prove an ethics violation, investigators would have to show that DeLay and his staff knew the gambling interest were funding the trip, the paper wrote quoting ethics lawyer Jan Baran of Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP. DeLay's spokesman, Dan Allen, said that the trip in question was sponsored, organized and paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, as the lawmaker's travel disclosures reflect, the paper wrote.

[BrainRants]

1. Drip...drip...drip...

Comin' to get you Bugman...

[paineinthearse]

2. It's just a matter of time nt