WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay spent $127,775 of the $185,300 he raised to fight legal problems in the third quarter of 2004.
The nonpartisan Web site PoliticalMoneyLine has reported the legal fund of the powerful conservative Texas Republican was buttressed by donations from nine House Republican members, including Majority Whip Roy Blunt, Harold Rogers of Kentucky, Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Texas Reps. Michael Burgess, John Carter, John Culberson, Kay Granger, Sam Johnson and Lamar Smith.
Other large donors include the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Energex Systems Inc.
The spending was dispersed primarily to two law firms for legal fees in a period that saw the House Ethics Committee examine and then publicly admonish Delay on two counts of a complaint filed against him by outgoing Rep. Chris Bell, D-Texas.
While the committee ultimately dismissed the charges, it chose to delay action on a third that is related to an ongoing grand jury investigation of Republican fundraising activities in Texas from which three top DeLay associates have been indicted.
