San Francisco (Obama.net)- In 2002, accusations arose that Tom DeLay, who was once the House Majority Leader, illegally funneled $190,000 in his attempts to get Republicans voted into the Senate and the House of Representatives. After being found guilty, DeLay was facing a potential 99 years in prison for money laundering and another two decades behind bars for conspiring to funnel the money.
DeLay can be seen as a lucky man because the prosecution was not trying to get him the maximum 119 years in prison, but instead only wanted ten. Still, DeLay and his legal team were hoping for just a probation sentencing.
Now, DeLay knows for sure what his sentence will be. Judge Pat Priest told the court on Monday in Austin, Texas that DeLay will be serving three years in jail for conspiring to funnel funds and another ten years of probation that will include community service for laundering the money.
DeLay was then taken into custody and his bail was placed at $10,000.
DeLay’s legal team is expected to appeal the decision.
His attorney Dick DeGeurin said after the announcement, “If I told you what I thought, I would get sued. This will not stand.”
DeLay was maintaining that he did not break the law up to the minutes before the sentencing was announced.
He told the court, “I always intended to follow the law. I’m not stupid. Everything I did I had accountants and lawyers telling me what to do and how to follow the letter of the law, even the spirit of the law.”
The man who was once the GOP Congressional Whip then turned his attention to Judge Priest and told him, “Judge, I can’t be remorseful for something I don’t think I did.”
Steve Brandt of the prosecution took DeLay’s lack of remorse as a reason to send him to prison. He told the judge, “He has shown no remorse, no remorse whatsoever. The man, according to him, does nothing wrong. He needs to go to prison, Your Honor, and he needs to go today.”
Brandt then quoted one of the founding fathers of the United States, Alexander Hamilton, when he reminded the court that “no one is above the law.”
DeLay’s legal team then said that the hard work that DeLay has put in over the years to benefit the Republican Party, the state of Texas, and the United States should count for something in the sentencing. He then made it clear that when it comes to the verdict that sends DeLay to jail, “We will challenge it.”
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