WASHINGTON, March 8 - Documents subpoenaed from an indicted fund-raiser for
Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, suggest that Mr. DeLay was more
actively involved than previously known in gathering corporate donations for
a political committee that is the focus of a grand-jury investigation in
Texas, his home state.
The documents, which were entered into evidence last week in a related civil
trial in Austin, the state capital, suggest that Mr. DeLay personally
forwarded at least one large corporate check to the committee, Texans for a
Republican Majority, and that he was in direct contact with lobbyists for
some of the nation's largest companies on the committee's behalf.
In an August 2002 document subpoenaed from the files of the indicted
fund-raiser, Warren M. RoBold, Mr. RoBold asked for a list of 10 major
donors to the committee, saying, "I would then decide from response who Tom
DeLay" and others should call to help the committee in seeking a "large
contribution."
Another document is a printout of a July 2002 e-mail message to Mr. RoBold
from a political ally of Mr. Delay, requesting a list of corporate lobbyists
who would attend a fund-raising event for the committee, adding that "DeLay
will want to see a list of attendees" and that the list should be available
"on the ground in Austin for T.D. upon his arrival."
Under Texas law, corporations are barred from donating money to state
political candidates. The Texas committee acknowledged receiving large
corporate donations during the 2002 campaign but always insisted that the
money was used for administrative costs, which is legal.
A spokesman for Mr. DeLay, Dan Allen, said that there was nothing in the
documents to suggest any impropriety by the majority leader and that Mr.
DeLay's role as an adviser and fund-raiser for Texans for a Republican
Majority was well known.
"His being on the advisory board is a well-established fact," Mr. Allen
said.
"There are partisans out there who are trying to stretch the role of what he
did with Trmpac," he added, using an acronym for the political action
committee.
Mr. DeLay, who as majority leader is the second-most-powerful Republican in
the House and who is considered his party's most aggressive fund-raiser in
Congress, has said that he is not concerned about the grand jury
investigation in Travis County, Tex., which includes most of Austin, and has
told friends that he had no involvement in the day-to-day fund-raising
operations of Texans for a Republican Majority.
Last September, the grand jury indicted two men close to Mr. DeLay: Mr.
RoBold, a major fund-raiser for the Texas committee and for Mr. DeLay's
national political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority;
and James W. Ellis, the national committee's director and one of Mr. DeLay's
closest political operatives. The Texas committee's executive director, John
Colyandro, was also indicted.
Prosecutors accused them of being part of a scheme at the committee to
funnel large corporate donations illegally to state Republican candidates in
the months before the 2002 elections in Texas, in which Republicans took
control of the State Legislature.
The 2002 elections in Texas had national significance, since they allowed
Republicans to redraw the state's Congressional districts, benefiting Mr.
DeLay by solidifying Republican control of the House.
In an interview last week, Ronnie Earle, the Travis County district
attorney, would not rule out the possibility of criminal charges against Mr.
DeLay, who was a founder of Texans for a Republican Majority and was a
member of its advisory board. In recent months, Mr. DeLay has gathered
donations for a legal defense fund to pay for lawyers to deal with the grand
jury investigation and has accused Mr. Earle, a Democrat, of engaging in a
partisan effort to "criminalize politics" in Texas.
The documents from Mr. RoBold's files were entered into evidence in a civil
trial brought against the Texas committee by defeated Democratic candidates
in the 2002 elections. In their lawsuit, the Democrats accused the committee
of violating the state's century-old ban on corporate donations to state
candidates.
A lawyer for Mr. RoBold, Rusty Hardin of Houston, said that the documents
offered no evidence to suggest any wrongdoing by Mr. RoBold or Mr. DeLay and
that Mr. RoBold continued to believe that Mr. DeLay had only a limited
advisory role on Texans for a Republican Majority.
"Warren was just having no contact with DeLay about this," Mr. Hardin said
in an interview. "DeLay wasn't directing him."
In one of his more detailed references to Mr. DeLay in the documents, Mr.
RoBold seemed to suggest in an e-mailed message on Aug. 19, 2002, that Mr.
DeLay would follow the committee's direction in fund-raising, not direct the
fund-raising himself.
"John," he wrote, referring to Mr. Colyandro, the committee's executive
director. "Create a top 10 list of givers and let me call them to ask for
large contribution. I would then decide from response who Tom DeLay others
should call. If this is successful than I will do more of them."
Many of the records provided by Mr. RoBold are printouts of e-mailed
messages that, as is typical for e-mail, have typing and grammatical errors.
Cris Feldman, a lawyer for the Democratic candidates, said he believed that
the newly revealed documents from Mr. RoBold were eye-opening.
"We always knew Tom DeLay was involved," Mr. Feldman said, "but we never
realized the extent to which he was involved in fund-raising directly with
corporations."
One of the most intriguing documents, he said, was a printout of a September
2002 e-mail exchange between Mr. RoBold and Drew Maloney, a Washington
lobbyist who is Mr. DeLay's former legislative director and administrative
assistant in the House.
Mr. Maloney, who has lobbied on behalf of Reliant Energy, the Houston-based
energy company that was a major contributor to Texans for a Republican
Majority, offered Mr. RoBold a list of possible corporate donors to the
Texas committee, adding: "I finally have the two checks from Reliant. Will
deliver to T.D. next week."
The Texas committee's donation records show that it received a check for
$25,000 from Reliant that month. The existence of some of the documents in
Mr. RoBold's files was first reported last month by The Austin
American-Statesman.
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Mr. Maloney said he could not recall
many of the details of the Reliant donations or whether checks from Reliant
were ever transferred to the Texas committee through Mr. DeLay's office in
Washington.
"I don't think it was necessarily meant that he'd get them himself," he
said. "I don't know how that all flowed."
Mr. Allen, Mr. DeLay's spokesman, said he had no knowledge about whether Mr.
DeLay or anyone in his office had actually received a check from Reliant in
2002 or whether one might have been forwarded to the Texas committee. "That
was three years ago," he said.
In the July 26, 2002, e-mail message regarding Mr. DeLay's planned meeting
three days later in Austin with corporate lobbyists at a fund-raiser, an
official at Americans for a Republican Majority asked help from Mr. RoBold,
Mr. Colyandro and Susan Lilly, a Texas political consultant, in obtaining a
list of people would attend the session.
"DeLay will want to see a list of attendees for this event," the message
read. "After today, I will be unavailable to pick up lists from my e-mail,
so if you don't have a finalized list by today, have that on the ground in
Austin for T. D. upon his arrival. Warren and John, Susan said you guys both
have your list of attendees. If you could get together w/her to have a final
list, that seems to be the best route to go. Any questions, give me a ring."
Mr. Allen also said he saw no significance in the message. "Only The New
York Times would find it odd that any member would want to know who was
going to be in a room before they walked into it," Mr. Allen said.
Asked if he had been contacted by prosecutors in Austin or by the grand
jury, Mr. Maloney would not comment, saying instead: "I'm not going to get
into these witch-hunt allegations. I think there's been enough written on
all this stuff."
A spokeswoman for Reliant had no immediate comment on issues raised by the
e-mail message.