DeLay wins round in Texas court

The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday refused to reinstate a dropped conspiracy charge against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Two charges _ money laundering and conspiring to launder money _ remain against the former congressman. He resigned last year amid allegations that he violated campaign finance laws to funnel $190,000 in corporate contributions to Republicans in the state's 2002 legislative elections.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 5-4 against reinstating a count of conspiracy to violate the state's election code.

A state district judge threw out that charge in December 2005 after defense lawyers argued that the law DeLay was accused of violating didn't take effect until 2003. A regional appeals court upheld the judge's decision.

DeLay said the ruling brought him "thankfully closer" to a resolution of the charges and repeated his longstanding contention that the prosecution is politically motivated.

"What (Travis County prosecutor) Ronnie Earle accomplished is no rookie error. It's a political attack using our legal system as the primary weapon," DeLay said in a statement issued from Virginia, where he now lives.

"The damage he has done to my family and my career cannot be rectified, but the courts have recognized a significant portion of the injustice and ruled accordingly," he said.

Rudy Magallanes, a spokesman for Earle, said the prosecutor's office was reviewing the appeals court opinion and he had no immediate comment.

DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said he was pleased with Wednesday's ruling but sorry it took so long.

"Ronnie Earle indicted Tom DeLay for a crime that didn't exist, wasn't on the books," DeGuerin said.

Lawyers are arguing about the remaining charges before an appeals court, and no trial date has been set. DeLay, who represented Houston's southwest suburbs for more than 20 years, is charged along with co-defendants John Colyandro and Jim Ellis.

Texas' 2002 legislative elections gave the GOP a majority in the state House of Representatives, giving the party its first speaker, Tom Craddick, since Reconstruction.

In 2003, Craddick and other Republicans pushed a congressional redistricting plan engineered by DeLay through the Legislature, and Gov. Rick Perry signed it into law.