Delay, Cunningham, Gelwix and trmpac

Back in early December, we learnt:

""A Texas prosecutor has issued subpoenas for bank records of a defense contractor involved in the bribery case of a California congressman as part of the investigation of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

District Attorney Ronnie Earle issued subpoenas last Thursday for California businessmen Brent Wilkes and Max Gelwix, records of Perfect Wave Technologies, Wilkes Corp. and ADCS Inc. in connection with a contribution to a fundraising committee at the center of the investigation that led to DeLay's indictment on money laundering charges."

Today we learn that Earle found something in those records.

I hate it when good people get sucked into the criminalization of politics - but we really need to maintain the rule of law and all that.

From The Chron:

" Travis County prosecutors attempted to dig deeper Thursday into links between California defense contractors involved in the bribery of a former congressman and their campaign contributions to a Texas political committee founded by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

District Attorney Ronnie Earle issued five subpoenas seeking specific banking records involving how San Diego-based Perfect Wave Technologies gave money to the DeLay-founded Texans for a Republican Majority in 2002."

And more from the AMERICAN-STATESMAN:

"It was the fall of 2002, and Texans for a Republican Majority was scouring for corporate money when it found an unlikely donor — a California defense technology firm willing to send part of its $40,000 startup money to help U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's political committee.

PerfectWave Technologies, a San Diego-area firm, gave DeLay's committee $15,000 to help elect Republicans to the Texas Legislature. It sent the rest of the $40,000 to a gala tribute to Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the San Diego-area congressman who resigned after pleading guilty last year to taking bribes from military contractors."

I've written about the Wilkes?DeLay link before.

There's this from the SDUT:

"On Sept. 20, 2002, three months after the company was founded, it donated $15,000 to Delay's Texas PAC. By the end of 2003, Max and Ellen Gelwix made more than $50,000 in political contributions, mostly to key Republican officials in the House leadership or the House Appropriations Committee.

Among other contributions, the Gelwixes donated $10,000 to DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority PAC; $11,000 to Future Leaders PAC, headed by Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee; $10,000 to Rely on Your Beliefs PAC, headed by acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt of Missouri; and $10,000 to Superior California Federal Leadership Fund, headed by Rep. John Doolittle, R-Granite Bay, who is on the Appropriations Committee.

The same month that Wilkes launched PerfectWave, he hired Alexander Strategy Group – composed of DeLay insiders – as his lobbying group on Capitol Hill.""

From the Chron article quoted above, also note this:

Austin lawyer Cris Feldman, who won a lawsuit filed by Democrats against Texans for a Republican Majority on related matters, said he was suspicious of so many out-of-state companies pouring corporate money into Texas during the 2002 campaigns."

FTR, joel combs donated $5k to armpac in april 02, as did gelwix . Incidentally, ziyad abduljawad also sent $2000 there at the same time.