DeLay co-defendant pleads guilty

Austinite John Colyandro, a co-defendant in the Tom DeLay money-laundering case, pleaded guilty Friday to a lesser charge of illegally accepting political contributions during the 2002 election.

Colyandro, a longtime Republican consultant, received a one-year deferred adjudication on two Class A misdemeanor charges. He also was fined $4,000 per charge. If Colyandro successfully completes unsupervised probation, there will be no final conviction on his record.

Colyandro ran the day-to-day activities at Texans for a Republican Majority, the DeLay political committee that exchanged $190,000 of corporate money for an equal amount of legal campaign donations from an arm of the Republican National Committee.

State law forbids corporations from donating directly to political campaigns.

More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/delay-co-defendant-pleads-guilty/nS268/ .