Tom DeLay sentenced to three years in prison

Tom DeLay sentenced to three years in prison

Tom DeLay sentenced to three years in prison

DeLay is appealing his conviction, but the sentencing is a yet another remarkable development in the downfall of a politician who was feared in the House and earned the nickname “The Hammer” during the peak of his power.

State Judge Pat Priest sentenced DeLay to a three-year term on conspiracy, and then accepted 10 years of probation in lieu of a five-year prison term on the money laundering charge. DeLay faced up to life in prison following his conviction.



“I always intended to follow the law,” DeLay told Priest before the sentence was handed down. “I’m not stupid. Everything I did I had accountants and lawyers telling me what to do and how to follow the letter of the law, even the spirit of the law.”

“Judge, I can’t be remorseful for something I don’t think I did,” DeLay added, according to CNN.

DeLay will be released on a $10,000 bond while he seeks to overturn the conviction.

At the center of the money laundering case against DeLay was the claim by prosecutors that the Texas Republican and his political allies illegally funneled “soft money” in 2002 state legislative races, a violation of Lone Star State election law.

In Sept. 2002, an organization founded by DeLay, Texans for a Republican Majority, donated $190,000 to the Republican National State Elections Committee, an arm of the Republican National Committee. TRMPAC made the donation to the committee in the form of soft money — unregulated donations from corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals. Federal candidates and the national parties cannot accept such donations at this time.

The RNC unit then donated the exact same amount in hard money — funds raised under federal donation limits — to Texas GOP state candidates.

Texas Republicans seized control of the state legislature that year for the first time since Reconstruction and redrew a number of Democratic-controlled congressional districts. That controversial move allowed Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional districts, resulting in the ouster of several Democrats and helping cement DeLay’s power in the House.