AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A judge dismissed a conspiracy charge Monday against Rep. Tom DeLay but refused to throw out far more serious allegations of money-laundering, dashing the congressman's hopes for now of reclaiming his post as House majority leader.

Texas Judge Pat Priest, who is presiding over the case against the Republican, issued the ruling after a hearing late last month in which DeLay's attorney argued that the indictment was fatally flawed.

When he was indicted in September, DeLay was required under House rules to relinquish the leadership post he had held since 2003. While Monday's ruling was a partial victory for DeLay, he cannot reclaim his post because he remains under indictment.

The ruling means the case will move toward a trial next year, though other defense objections to the indictments remain to be heard by the judge

In a written statement, prosecutor Ronnie Earle's office said authorities had made no decision about whether to appeal. Prosecutors have 15 days to challenge the decision.

In asking that the case be thrown out, DeLay lawyer Dick DeGuerin argued that one of the charges - conspiracy to violate the Texas election code - did not even take effect until September 2003, a year after the alleged offenses occurred.

Prosecutors, however, said the crime of conspiracy was already on the books, and could be applied to the election code even though such uses were not explicitly in state law at the time.

The judge was unpersuaded by that argument and dismissed the conspiracy charge. But the judge upheld charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Those charges involve an alleged attempt by DeLay to conceal the source of the campaign contributions by funneling the money through his own political action committee and then an arm of the Republican National Committee.

In trying to have those charges thrown out, the defense argued that the Texas money laundering law does not apply to funds in the form of a check, just coins or paper money. But the judge said that checks "are clearly funds and can be the subject of money laundering."

The defense attorneys also argued that the definition of money laundering in Texas involves the transfer of criminal proceeds. Because the money in this case was not illegal to begin with, they argued, money laundering never occurred.

But the judge rejected that argument, too, saying the money became suspect when "it began to be held with the prohibited intent."

He said if prosecutors can prove that DeLay and his associates obtained the corporate donations "with the express intent of converting those funds to the use of individual candidates," or that they converted money legally collected by sending it to the RNC and asking for the same amount to be sent back to Texas candidates, "then they will have established that money was laundered."

Conspiracy to violate the election code carries up to two years in prison. Money laundering is punishable by five years to life. Conspiracy to commit money laundering carries two years.

The alleged campaign-finance scheme had far-reaching political effects: With DeLay's fundraising muscle, the GOP took control of the Texas House for the first time in 130 years, then pushed through a congressional redistricting plan engineered by DeLay that resulted in more Texas Republicans going to Congress

Norm Ornstein, an analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, said DeLay's chances of regaining his leadership job were "slim to none."

"You've got a lot of people who privately view DeLay as so radioactive," said Ornstein, a frequent critic of DeLay. The congressman is also linked to an ongoing investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The judge has yet to rule on a defense bid to move DeLay's trial out of liberal, Democratic-leaning Austin and allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. DeGuerin accused the district attorney of shopping the DeLay case around to different grand juries until he found one that would indict the congressman.

The judge acted as a CNN-USA Today/Gallup poll showed that DeLay's political standing has weakened considerably in his home district around Houston.

The Dec. 1-4 survey of 713 registered voters found 49 percent saying they would be more likely to vote for a Democratic challenger in 2006 while 36 percent would vote for DeLay. And 55 percent said DeLay probably or definitely broke campaign finance laws. The telephone poll in the 22nd Congressional District of Texas had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.


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