# Tom Delay found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 25, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847 "2010-11-25T03:57:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/1 "2010-11-25T03:57:10Z")
Tom Delay got “hammered” by a Texas court. He was found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy. The laundering charge can mean life in prison. The conspiracy charge is from 2 to 20 years. There is also a 20 thou fine possible, Sentencing in Dec. 20th. > **[Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay convicted of money laundering](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-nov-24-la-na-delay-verdict-20101125-story.html)** > > Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay convicted of money laundering ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/2 "2010-11-25T04:01:59Z")
[Response](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usfiAsWR4qU) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/3 "2010-11-25T04:15:52Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > [Response](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usfiAsWR4qU) Awesome! You da man. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/4 "2010-11-25T04:22:29Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > The laundering charge can mean life in prison. Aren’t money laundering laws generally created to stop usable money becoming available to terrorists or organised crime? Using it in response to a violation of _campaign financing laws_ seems like a gross misapplication of the law. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/5 "2010-11-25T04:29:15Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Aren’t money laundering laws generally created to stop usable money becoming available to terrorists or organised crime? Using it in response to a violation of _campaign financing laws_ seems like a gross misapplication of the law. So which is more harmful to the public: organised crime, or subverting the electoral process? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/6 "2010-11-25T04:30:00Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Aren’t money laundering laws generally created to stop usable money becoming available to terrorists or organised crime? Using it in response to a violation of _campaign financing laws_ seems like a gross misapplication of the law. I don’t think so. terrorism is relatively new use . Laundering goes at least back to organized crime days. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/7 "2010-11-25T05:18:42Z")
Well, I’ve held off till now, but I’m glad that this is finally over. Delay was an unusually scummy criminal and I’m glad that he got convicted. Innocent until proven guilty, but now that he is proven guilty, he is guilty for the rest of history, no matter what his appellate judge friends think. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/8 "2010-11-25T05:46:11Z")
It’s not over. He’s going to appeal. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/9 "2010-11-25T06:09:33Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > It’s not over. He’s going to appeal. Wouldn’t you. He could get life. Of course he is rich and connected so he wont, but a long time is possible. So is probation. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/10 "2010-11-25T06:35:31Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Aren’t money laundering laws generally created to stop usable money becoming available to terrorists or organised crime? Using it in response to a violation of _campaign financing laws_ seems like a gross misapplication of the law. From wikipedia: > [@](#): > > The first use of the term “money laundering” is during the Watergate scandal. U.S. President Richard Nixon’s “Committee to Re-elect the President” moved dirty campaign contributions to Mexico, then brought the money back through a company in Miami. It was Britain’s The Guardian newspaper that coined the term, referring to the process as “laundering.” (See Jeffrey Robinson’s three books on money laundering, The Laundrymen, The Merger and The Sink.) So the first use of the term refered to a similar case. Granted many of the relevant laws predate the term and do date back to efforts to crack down on organized crime. But they’ve been used to go after illegal campaign contributions since at least the Watergate Era. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/11 "2010-11-25T06:54:13Z")
I guess that, at this rate, the next conviction thanks to election money laundering from republican politicians and supporters will be seen in 2020. [http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/05/foreign-chamber-commerce/](http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/05/foreign-chamber-commerce/) ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/12 "2010-11-25T07:19:29Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Aren’t money laundering laws generally created to stop usable money becoming available to terrorists or organised crime? Using it in response to a violation of _campaign financing laws_ seems like a gross misapplication of the law. No, money laundering can be associated with any criminal enterprise. I just recently wrote a case summary for a case where some of the charges were money laudering for an illegally operated refuse site. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/13 "2010-11-25T12:42:33Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > [Response](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usfiAsWR4qU) Not [this one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU)? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/14 "2010-11-25T17:05:06Z")
He was a very model of a modern “boss Tweed”. He loved accumulating power and exerting it. He was called “the Hammer” because he beat down opposition and molded the party in his arrogant and dangerous image. He and Gingrich are examples of how bad politics can get when the press does not do their job. It has been a long time since the press showed the clockweights ti stand up to a powerful politician. When they think the Delay case is final, then they will jump all over him but right now they are silent. Main stream press is reporting it but nothing more. ---
**Author:** ![InterestedObserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/15 "2010-11-27T00:36:35Z")
He’s an arrogant, elitist scum who still refuses to admit any wrongdoing or to accept that the law applies to HIM and his buddies same way it applies to everyone else. Typical republican, imo. This 3rd generation Texan hopes he rots in jail for a long while. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/16 "2010-11-27T01:33:49Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Not [this one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU)? 🙂 In honor of The Hammer, I prefer this one: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/otCpCn0l4Wo/maxresdefault.jpg "M.C. Hammer - U Can't Touch This") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo) ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/17 "2010-11-29T22:34:41Z")
IMHO, if you’ve been convicted based on a [novel legal theory never before tried](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/us/politics/25delay.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=tom%20delay&st=cse) in the state whose laws you’re accused of violating, you’re guilty more of misunderstanding the law than of criminal activity. And if the prosecution initially indicts you on other charges before realizing that those charges are not criminal and then resorting to the novel legal theory, that suggests that they are out to get you. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/18 "2010-11-30T00:03:50Z")
Or, alternatively, you are figuring with enough lawyers you can get away with it. Which, most likely, he will. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-delay-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-and-conspiracy/561847/19 "2010-11-30T00:41:00Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Not [this one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU)? 🙂 I think [this one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0sI6eFarFE) is appropriate.