US News

DeLay gets 3 years’ prison

AUSTIN, Texas — A judge ordered former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to serve three years in prison yesterday for his role in a scheme to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002.

The sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. DeLay was once one of the most powerful men in US politics, ascending to the No. 2 job in the House.

Senior Judge Pat Priest sentenced him to the three-year term on the conspiracy charge. He also sentenced him to five years in prison on the money-laundering charge but allowed DeLay to accept 10 years of probation instead of more prison time.

The former Houston-area congressman had faced up to life in prison. His attorneys asked for probation.

Priest issued his ruling after a brief sentencing hearing yesterday in which former House Speaker Dennis Hastert testified on DeLay’s behalf.

Prosecutors attempted to present only one witness at the hearing, Peter Cloeren, a Southeast Texas businessman who claimed DeLay had urged him in 1996 to evade campaign-finance laws in a separate case.

But not long after Cloeren began testifying, Priest declined to hear him, saying prosecutors couldn’t prove the businessman’s claims beyond a reasonable doubt.

“You lose. I will not hear this testimony,” Priest said.

Hastert, an Illinois Republican who was House speaker from 1999 to 2006, testified about DeLay’s conservative and religious values, his work helping foster children and the help he provided to the family of one of the police officers killed in a 1998 shooting at the Capitol in Washington.

“That’s the real Tom DeLay that a lot of people never got to see,” Hastert said.

After a monthlong trial, a jury determined that DeLay conspired with two associates to use his Texas-based political-action committee to send $190,000 in corporate money to an arm of the Republican National Committee. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can’t go directly to political campaigns.

DeLay contended the charges were politically motivated and the money swap was legal. His lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, says DeLay believes the convictions will be overturned on appeal.