Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle's announcement yesterday that he was indicting House Majority Leader Tom DeLay came a little more than two weeks after Earle gave clear indications that the top Republican was off the hook.
"I have never said that DeLay is a target of the investigation," Earle told the Dallas Morning News on Sept. 10.
Sources familiar with Earle's investigation had agreed that before yesterday, it didn't look like the top Republican would be indicted.
On Sept. 19, for instance, ace Newsweek sleuth Michael Isikoff reported that it looked like DeLay was in the clear:
"Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's two-year campaign-fund-raising probe is expected to wind down soon without bringing charges against the House majority leader, according to lawyers close to the case who declined to be identified because of legal sensitivities," Isikoff reported.
"Earle doesn't plan to refer evidence to the prosecutor in DeLay's home district either," an Earle spokesman told Newsweek.
So what changed?
DeLay says reports that he was off the hook prompted a firestorm of outrage from national Democrats, who pressured Earle to reverse course.
"Do you really believe that the national Democrat leaders that announced that they were going to take this strategy . . . never picked up the phone and talked to Ronnie Earle," he told the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" Wednesday night.
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