(Tom) DeLay took hit from legal fees, reports show

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DeLay took hit from legal fees, reports show
Disclosure forms show Marchant, Hutchison with high assets

WASHINGTON – Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's legal bills spiked in the last year while his political fortunes plummeted.

At the end of 2005, Mr. DeLay owed lawyers at least $1.35 million, according to annual financial disclosure forms made public Wednesday – even after collecting $588,000 from donors to his defense fund.

The disclosures, required of all federal lawmakers and filed a month ago, provide a rare window on officials' finances, though assets and debts are reported in broad ranges, and lawmakers aren't required to report home values and mortgages.

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The form shows unpaid legal bills as high as $2.85 million – 10 times more than a year earlier. Legal fund trustee Brent Perry of Houston says Mr. DeLay managed in recent months to chip away at the debt, which is now below $1 million.

WASHINGTON -- February 1 -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s legal defense fund has raised more than $999,000 since it was founded in 2000. Current and former members of Congress and their political action committees (PACs) contributed $174,500 in the last quarter of 2004, representing 69 percent of the $254,250 collected by the fund during the period, according to a Public Citizen analysis. The same group contributed almost as much to DeLay’s legal fund in the last three months of 2004 as it did in the previous four years. Contributions less than $250 do not need to be publicly disclosed.

Other findings of the analysis of contributions to DeLay’s legal defense fund since its inception in July 2000 through December 2004 include:

DeLay’s legal defense fund raised $439,550 in 2004, 44 percent of the total it has raised since its inception in 2000.

A state-by-state breakdown shows that the largest amounts were contributed by donors from ($265,700), Kentucky ($113,800), California ($93,850) and the District of Columbia ($93,000).

Fifty-eight percent of the contributions ($581,496) came from corporations and their employees. Leading industry contributors were energy and natural resources ($127,300); construction ($80,800); communications and electronics ($60,250); agriculture ($53,250) finance, insurance and real estate ($47,290); and lawyers and lobbyists ($36,500).

Corporations have contributed $355,650 to the fund, or 36 percent of all contributions.