Rep. Wants Enron E-Mail on DeLay Examined
Tue Jul 13,11:04 AM ET
news.yahoo.com
By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Rep. Chris Bell, D-Texas, who filed an ethics
complaint against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, says e-mails
between Enron officials bolster his charges that DeLay illegally solicited
and accepted political contributions and should be investigated.
Bell said he will ask House ethics committee
members to review the e-mails before
deciding whether to launch a formal
investigation of the Texas Republican based
on the complaint Bell filed last month.
DeLay has repeatedly dismissed Bell's
charges, saying Bell is bitter because he lost
his re-election bid in March. Republicans have
said Democrats are behind the complaint.
"The last sign of a defeated and intellectually
bankrupt party is a hate-filled strategy of caricature assassination," said
Jonathan Grella, a DeLay spokesman.
In a May 31, 2001 e-mail to former Enron chief executive Kenneth Lay,
Enron lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson wrote that "DeLay
has asked Enron to contribute $100,000 to his leadership committee
ARMPAC through a combination of corporate and personal money from
Enron executives. ARMPAC funds will be used to assist other House
members as well as the redistricting effort in Texas."
ARMPAC is an abbreviation for Americans for a Republican Majority
Political Action Committee, established by DeLay.
A Texas district attorney is investigating Republican fund-raising for
Texas' 2002 House races, which seated the first Republican majority in
the state House since Reconstruction. The majority was necessary for
Republican legislators, pressed by DeLay, to redraw Texas'
congressional districts.
Texas law prohibits corporations from contributing to state legislative
races.
Bell said the e-mail to Lay, and another sent July 24, 2000 to another
senior Enron official, "point to Mr. DeLay's very hands-on involvement" in
raising corporate money for his effort to redraw Texas' congressional
district boundaries so more Republicans could be elected to the U.S.
House.
DeLay has not been accused of wrongdoing by prosecutors nor has he
been subpoenaed. The Texas prosecutor leading the investigation has
said DeLay is not its target, but he also has said no corporation or
individual has been cleared.
Bell's district was redrawn and he lost his seat in the Democratic
primary. He'll leave Congress when this session ends.
The e-mails were first reported last year by Salon.com, but resurfaced in
a Washington Post article Monday. They are available through the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Web site.
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