While I am sure that the guilty verdict against Tom DeLay will be popular among a lot of groups, one has to realize just how contrived the entire thing really was, and I can assure you that if the prosecutors get away with this, libertarians such as ourselves will be in the crosshairs of future prosecutions. Let me explain.

The first charges against DeLay were for “illegal campaign contributions,” except that there was no law against what he and his organization did. Thus, Ronnie Earle, who had a history of politically-motivated prosecutions, charged DeLay with “money laundering” and “conspiracy to engage in money laundering.” Now, money laundering only is possible if the money was obtained illegally, as it is a cheap way to try to convict drug dealers and others of crimes when the underlying crime cannot be prosecuted successfully.
I make this point because “money laundering” itself is an ancillary crime, and one that is contrived as a mechanism either to pile on charges against someone in an attempt to “bleed ’em and plead ’em,” as prosecutors like to say, or as a means to get an “Al Capone” verdict because it is impossible to prove the actual crimes. Libertarians should be against ALL “money laundering” charges because they are abhorrent in themselves and do not actually deal with any real harm that a supposed crime has caused other individuals.

In DeLay’s case, the corporate contributions also were legal, so in this situation, you have a man whose organization received legal funds and who did not break the law in distributing those funds convicted in a politically-motivated trial for “money laundering.” This should have libertarians up in arms because prosecutors have managed to criminalize legal behavior. This is what Rudy Giuliani did in Michael Milken’s case, except that Giuliani and his lieutenants like Michael Chertoff (yes, the guy who got rich off porn scanners) committed felonies by illegally leaking grand jury information to the media and who engaged in real obstruction of justice by telling the press that there were 100 superseding indictments against Milken when, in fact, that was a lie.

Yes, we can say that given the fact that DeLay treated Ron Paul badly, this is a sort of “rough justice.” Nonetheless, I hope people understand why I think this verdict is an outrage and why I hope it is overturned. The United States long ago abandoned law, and don’t think for a second that people like us are going to be ignored as prosecutors become even bolder in their jihad against the Rule of Law. It will happen, and we have to understand that sad fact.