Tom DeLay’s Wife Attempts To Quash Subponea In Connection With Civil Suit Related To ARMPAC’s Demise
By Vince Leibowitz on Dec 22, 2008 in Featured, GOP Corruption & Scandals ![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
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Christine DeLay, the wife of indicted former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) is attempting to quash a subpoena served on her in connection with a civil suit in Houston tied to the scandals that eventually shuttered DeLay’s Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee.
Christine DeLay (right) is attempting to quash a subpoena served on her to give a deposition in a civil lawsuit brought by the former treasurer of her husband's PAC, Americans for a Republican Majority.
The case is Teltschik v. Williams & Jensen, et al and was filed in August 0f 2007 in Federal District Court in Houston. In the suit, Corwin L. Teltschik, the former treasurer of Tom DeLay’s Americans for a Republican Majority PAC alleges that Williams & Jensen, the law firm that represented ARMPAC, conceded in filings with the Federal Election Commission that Teltschik violated federal election laws, including committing felonies.
The blog Anti-Corruption Republican reported last week that Christine DeLay was served with the subpoena this month and that her attorneys filed a motion to quash the subpoena last Wednesday:
In fact, according to Mr. Teltschik, Mrs. DeLay was the person who persuaded him to take on the role of ARMPAC’s treasurer. (Why did ARMPAC need a naive treasurer?)
That’s the thrust of Mrs. DeLay’s attempt to quash the subpoena. Mrs. DeLay’s attorneys make other seemingly standard points. The subpoena places an undue burden on Mrs. DeLay. There isn’t enough time before the January 2, 2009 deposition for Mrs. DeLay to prepare properly. (I’m kind of sympathetic to that one, so just push the depo out a week or two. Interestingly, there was another version of the subpoena out on PACER with an earlier deposition date. Court documents aren’t clear regarding what happened to that subpoena.) Lastly, Mrs. DeLay faces the financial burden of hiring a lawyer to represent her / quash the subpoena.
While it is likely that DeLay’s attorneys can win her a delay from her date with the deposition, it is unlikely they’ll be successful in quashing the subpoena all together, although it is unlikely she’d be giving testimony until her husband’s criminal case is completed. One of the things DeLay’s attorneys allege in their motion to quash is that her testimony would violate “spousal privilege.” In a civil case, spousal privilege can be interpreted fairly narrowly and might not save Christine DeLay from a deposition. However, given that her husband presently has a pending criminal case in which spousal privilege is absolute, the two worlds would essentially collide and likely prevent her testimony until her husband’s criminal case has concluded.
Going back to the Conciliation Agreement between the Federal Election Commission and ARMPAC reached in the Spring of 2006, all of the parties agreed to this wording in the complaint:
“The Commission found reason to believe that Americans for a Republican Majority (”the Committee” and Corwin Teltschik, in his official capacity as Treasurer, (collectively, “Respondents”)…
…followed by a list of seven Federal statutes alleged to have been violated.
[Hat tip to Land of Enchantment at DailyKOS for alerting us to these developments]
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