Jim Ellis

James Walter "Jim" Ellis, who runs Thomas D. DeLay's political action committee Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee (ARMPAC), is one of the two political associates who were indicted with DeLay on September 28, 2005, in "an alleged scheme to use corporate political donations illegally to support candidates in state elections." 

Indictments and More Indictments Ellis and John Colyandro, who "also faces 13 counts of unlawful acceptance of a corporate political contribution," "already faced charges of money laundering in the case." They were indicted September 13, 2005, "on additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in the 2002 legislative races." 

"The money laundering charges stem from $190,000 in corporate funds that were sent" to the Republican National Committee, "which then spent the same amount on seven candidates for the Texas Legislature." 

Ellis-Blunt-DeLay "... most people are unaware that Ellis has extensive ties to both Tom DeLay and Roy Blunt that go back at least to 1999." --Roy Temple, Fired Up America, August 15, 2005.

Blunt Defense
"On September 22, 2004, the day after Ellis was indicted by a Texas grand jury, Roy Blunt rushed onto CNN's 'Inside Politics' and defended Ellis. Blunt dismissed the indictiments as 'all politics' and then proceeded to attack the prosecutor in the case," Roy Temple wrote June 9, 2005.

Blunt "then describe[d] the DeLay fundraising tactics for which Ellis was indicted as 'reasonable by any standard that I know of in terms of how political fund-raising is done in the country today.'

"On March 8, 2005, Roll Call reported that in January 2004, Roy Blunt, through the political committee that Ellis formerly ran, contributed $10,000 to Ellis' legal defense fund," Temple wrote. "The contributions to Ellis' legal defense fund, are in addition to separate contributions Blunt has made directly to DeLay's legal defense fund."

Pay to Play
The Associated Press reported September 28, 2005, that Roy Blunt’s "federal PAC, Rely On Your Beliefs Fund, paid Jim Ellis’s firm, the J W Ellis Company, $3,000 a month from May March 2003 to January 2005, and $4,000 a month from February 2005 to at least July 2005. The payment for June and July was made in August, the last month covered by disclosure reports. The payments were identified as political consulting and fundraising services. The total payment for those months was $88,000 $94,000." 

Blunt's political committee has paid fees since 2003 to "a consultant under indictment in Texas with DeLay, according to federal records," Larry Margasak wrote September 28, 2005.

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * conspiracy to violate state election code
 * Republican 'culture of corruption'