Tom DeLay, former GOP House majority leader was convicted of illegally funneling money to Republican candidates. Known as “the Hammer” for his hard hitting style, DeLay loaded the Texas State legislature and engaged in gerrymandering to favor Republican Congressional candidates.

Speaking to reporters after the trial, DeLay said he was disappointed that the jury had found him guilty. He said the verdicts were a “miscarriage” of justice and he vowed to carry on.

Strengthening Republicans

During the three-week trial, prosecutors presented more than 30 witnesses and volumes of emails and other documents as evidence.

Prosecutors said DeLay conspired with two associates, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, to channel donations into the Republican National Committee, which then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money cannot go directly to political campaigns.

Prosecutors claim the money helped Republicans take control of the Texas House. That enabled the Republican majority to push through a DeLay-engineered congressional redistricting plan that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004, and strengthened DeLay’s political power.

For more on DeLay’s tactics read here

The lines drawn by the Texas Legislature after the 2000 Census were not stacked to DeLay’s liking. So the House Republican leader worked overtime to elect Republicans to the state Legislature so that they could override the map drawn in 2001 with new, even more biased district lines. His tactic worked and five Democrats were defeated in districts that wouldn’t go Democratic even if Adolf Hitler were the GOP nominee.