DeLay Asks That Indictments Be Set Aside

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's legal team asked a court Friday to throw out his indictment, arguing that a Texas district attorney "attempted to browbeat and coerce" grand jurors into filing criminal charges.

Prosecutor Ronnie Earle "and his staff engaged in an extraordinarily irregular and desperate attempt to contrive a viable charge and get a substitute indictment of Tom Delay before the expiration of the statute of limitations," DeLay's attorney Dick DeGuerin said in a court filing alleging prosecutorial misconduct.

DeGuerin alleged that Earle unlawfully participated in grand jury deliberations when he went to a second grand jury last week to seek a second indictment against the Texas Republican. He also said Earle illegally discussed grand jury information and encouraged others to do the same.

DeGuerin alleged that Earle turned to the coercion tactics to get the second grand jury to change its decision not to indict DeLay so there would be no public record of a rejection.

DeGuerin said the indictment forced DeLay to step down from his job as majority leader, the No. 2 position in the House, for a crime that did not exist in Texas law.

Two people familiar with the proceedings of the grand jury that returned a "no bill" in the DeLay case told The Associated Press that Earle tried to persuade the grand jurors that DeLay tacitly approved the scheme and that the prosecutor became angry when they decided against an indictment. The people familiar with the proceeding insisted on anonymity because of grand jury secrecy.

DeGuerin also alleges that Earle "unlawfully incited" William Gibson, the foreman of the grand jury that indicted DeLay on conspiracy, to talk publicly, on the record, to the media to bias the public and sitting grand jurors.

He alleged Earle discussed ongoing proceedings with some members of that same grand jury to find out whether they would have returned the conspiracy indictment if they knew it "had no basis in law."

DeGuerin also alleges Earle told the third grand jury that indicted DeLay on money laundering charges what the initial grand jury said "to persuade them to issue a replacement indictment."

"Such 'additional information' is not evidence and thus its use before a grand jury violates" Texas law, DeGuerin said.