AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The state’s highest criminal court says money-laundering statutes can be used in the prosecution of aides to former U.S. Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
In a unanimous ruling Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected arguments made from former DeLay associates John Colyandro and Jim Ellis that the law did not apply to them because they transferred banned corporate money via check instead of cash.
In 2002, DeLay and the two aides used a new political committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, to raise and spend about $600,000 in corporate money to defeat Democratic candidates for the Texas Legislature.
The ruling allows prosecutions against the two men to continue.