Slowly the Noose Tightens

As if DeLay didn't have enough problems, a former aide has pleaded guilty to charges to corrupt public officials and defraud his clients, and will now turn state's evidence for prosecutors looking into wider-ranging incidents of corruption among members of Congress, their aides and other lobbyists:

Tony C. Rudy, a former deputy chief of staff to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), pleaded guilty yesterday to charges that he conspired with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to corrupt public officials and defraud his clients, as a burgeoning corruption probe took one step closer to members of Congress.

Rudy's plea makes it clear that the federal investigation has far to go. The confession "does not include all of the facts known to me concerning criminal activity in which I or others engaged," he stated.

Rudy, 39, agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department investigation, which sources have said is scrutinizing the actions of half a dozen members of Congress, as well as of Capitol Hill staffers, other officials and Abramoff's business associates. The court papers for the first time formally refer to DeLay as one of those involved in the activities under scrutiny, listing him as "Representative #2." But though the papers show that Rudy traded on DeLay's name, they do not indicate that Rudy has evidence to implicate his former boss.

Well if that's the case, then why do I say this amounts to more trouble for DeLay?

The court documents say that Rudy "routinely performed official acts for or at the behest of Abramoff." Rudy admitted that, while on DeLay's staff in the summer of 2000, he helped scuttle an anti-gambling bill opposed by an Abramoff client, eLottery Inc. As The Washington Post reported in October, Abramoff then arranged for eLottery to pay a foundation to hire Lisa Rudy's consulting firm. In all, the court papers say, Abramoff and his clients funneled about $86,000 to the firm while Rudy worked for DeLay.

Court papers say Rudy obtained in 2000 a letter from DeLay to a Clinton administration official opposing a postal rate increase that would affect an Abramoff client.

The documents also implicate a "Lobbyist B," which lawyers familiar with the case say is Edwin A. Buckham, DeLay's former chief of staff, who has been perhaps the congressman's closest aide and spiritual adviser. That lobbyist helped Abramoff channel $50,000 in illicit payments to Lisa Rudy's Liberty Consulting from June 2000 to February 2001 and won Rudy's support for his lobbying clients.

And yet:

Richard Cullen, DeLay's attorney, said his client "was unaware of any of the acts to which Mr. Rudy has pled guilty."

Cullen, DeLay's attorney, said that "it's a very hard thing for Mr. DeLay to read and to hear about" the actions undertaken in his office.

I bet it is! Despite Cullen's optimism:

Stanley M. Brand, a former House counsel with experience in corruption probes, said prosecutors may be trying to surround DeLay by gaining the cooperation of aides higher and higher up his operation. "This is not a good day for Tom DeLay," Brand said.

In other words, even if DeLay manages to survive the charges against him down here in Texas, he may be in for something far more serious back in D.C. As prosecutors scoop up his former aides, each one deciding in turn to cooperate, they get closer and closer to DeLay and other Republican members of Congress. Anyway you size it up and whichever party is committing it, such rampant corruption is harmful to the American people, and you won't see anyone happier than us here at TWM to see these guys get what they've got coming.