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Apr.29, 2010, 12:00 AM CDT, Source: The Associated Press

AUSTIN – A Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling Wednesday should remove roadblocks to former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's public corruption trial after years of procedural slow-motion, his attorney said.

DeLay and two associates are charged with money laundering and conspiracy stemming from efforts to elect Republicans to the state House in 2002.

On Wednesday, the appeals court rejected arguments by the co-defendants, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, that the law used by prosecutors does not apply to them because the corruption allegations involved checks instead of cash.

Although the ruling did not directly involve the case against DeLay, defense attorney Dick DeGuerin and Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg agreed the trial judge had been waiting for the co-defendants' appeals to play out before proceeding.

In 2002, DeLay and the two other men used the new Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee to raise and spend about $600,000 to defeat Democratic candidates for the Texas Legislature. The three men were indicted in 2005 on accusations of laundering $190,000 in corporate money, heavily restricted under state law, to help elect GOP legislators.

Prosecutors say DeLay and his co-defendants funneled corporate money through the Republican National Committee in Washington and then back to state legislative candidates in violation of state law. The 2002 elections ushered in the first Republican majority in the Texas House since the Civil War era.

All three men say they did nothing wrong. DeGuerin said that the money-laundering statute in effect at the time did not apply to check transfers and that the appeals court ruling does not bar him from making that argument at trial court. He also said the money that went to the Republican candidates is not the same corporate money that was sent to Washington.