HOUSTON — Prosecutors are prepared to use information from people involved in Rep. Tom DeLay's fundraising organization, including out-of-state business executives, against him in an effort to prove that he conspired to route illegal corporate money into elections, attorneys and officials close to the case said Thursday.
That information -- some of it contained in documents, such as a note reminding DeLay to call an executive whose company was preparing to write a $25,000 check -- would be used at trial to suggest that the indicted congressman was directly involved in the fundraising setup, the attorneys and officials said.
Still, analysts said it was not enough for Dist. Atty. Ronald Earle, who is leading the prosecution, to show that DeLay helped raise money from corporations, even though Texas law bans corporate contributions to legislative candidates.
To convict DeLay, Earle must show that the U.S. House majority leader intentionally agreed to commit a felony.
Earle would have to show, essentially, that DeLay knew the corporate money he was raising was going to be routed to Republican legislative candidates.
For that, Earle would need an inside witness to turn state's evidence -- and a furious parlor game has begun in Texas over whom that might be, and what that person might be willing to say at trial.
"He's got an opera singer," one Democrat said.
David H. Berg, a Houston attorney who wrote a book on trial law, has argued numerous conspiracy cases and is far less certain that Earle can secure a conviction.
"Ronnie Earle has got to be holding a good hand that he's just not showing," Berg said.
A Texas grand jury indicted DeLay on Wednesday, charging him with conspiracy, which forced him to step down, for now, from his leadership post in Congress.
The indictment focuses on a transaction during the 2002 election cycle in Texas, when Republicans, long the minority party in Texas, took control of the state's political structure and helped secure DeLay's power base in Washington.
In that process, a committee DeLay founded to assist conservative politicians -- Texans for a Republican Majority -- collected money from corporations. The committee, known as TRMPAC, then wrote a $190,000 check to an arm of the Republican National Committee in Washington.
According to prosecutors, the national committee then distributed the money back to seven Texas legislative candidates.
DeLay has called the indictment the result of a political vendetta and has denied any wrongdoing.
Although Earle has declined to discuss any of the evidence that was presented behind closed doors to the grand jury, DeLay's lawyer suggested that the indictment was a sham. It contained so little information, said attorney Dick DeGuerin, that it was intended more to embarrass DeLay -- Earle knew that under GOP rules DeLay would have to step down from his leadership post -- than to convict him.
"If you read the indictment, you can't tell what Tom DeLay is charged with doing," DeGuerin said.
Texas indictments, however, frequently contain little information about what prosecutors know or what they hope to prove at trial.
Sources with knowledge of the case said some of the evidence that Earle has could prove damaging to the congressman.
Much of that evidence would probably come from corporations that have also been indicted in the scandal.
A year ago, a grand jury indicted three of DeLay's top aides and accused them of money laundering and unlawfully accepting and soliciting corporate contributions. At the time, eight corporations were also accused of taking part in the conspiracy.
The corporations have denied wrongdoing, but four of them have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors -- on top of other provisions -- in exchange for the dismissal of their indictments. The investigation of the companies has yielded some evidence.
One document, for instance, shows that DeLay was asked to call the former chief executive of one of the companies, the Internet company Questerra Corp., which wrote a $25,000 check to TRMPAC.
Another of the indicted companies, the Williams Cos. Inc., an Oklahoma gas exploration and production firm, sent its $25,000 contribution directly to DeLay, signed, "With best wishes," by one of its vice presidents. In the letter, the company said it was making good on a pledge made at a June 2002 fundraiser.
That fundraiser, a golf outing, has long added to the controversy surrounding DeLay. Last fall, the House ethics committee cited DeLay's participation in the fundraiser when it admonished the congressman for the third time. The panel called the event "objectionable" because it involved energy companies and took place shortly before an important vote on energy legislation.
Williams Cos. did not return phone calls seeking comment. Questerra is a subsidiary of Connecticut-based MeadWestvaco, whose spokeswoman said the company continues to cooperate with prosecutors, though she refused to say whether it had been asked to participate if the DeLay case went to trial.
