Reply #17: Testimony at Texas Trial Focuses on Use of Donations (James Ellis)

[Roland99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/03/politics/03delay.html

In the criminal case, Mr. Delay's two Washington aides - James W. Ellis, head of Mr. Delay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, and Warren M. RoBold, a prominent fund-raiser - have pleaded not guilty.

In testimony this week on behalf of the five defeated Democratic candidates in the lawsuit, a former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Trevor Potter, said that Texans for a Republican Majority was "a highly sophisticated political operation" that had clearly violated state election laws.

Mr. Potter suggested he was especially disturbed by a September 2002 transaction in which the Texas committee donated $190,000 in corporate money to the Republican National Committee, which then quickly sent out checks totaling the same amount to several Texas candidates.

The indictment of Mr. Ellis alleges that he delivered the check to the Republican National Committee and provided it with the list of candidates who should receive the contributions. "It raises the obvious question whether this was money laundering," Mr. Potter said.