At the center of the case against the indicted Tom DeLay and his indicted PAC director, Jim Ellis, is a October 2, 2002 meeting in DeLay's Capitol office.

The Washington Post's Jeff Smith and the Houston Chronicle's RG Ratcliffe move this story ahead today.

The timeline is pretty simple:

No lying allowed.

Catching the indicted DeLay's hysterics.

Developing... Stay tuned here all day, folks. There's a growing buzz out of Austin since last night about today's wrap up of the grand jury in Travis County surrounding DeLay's TRMPAC. I'll be in New York City most of the day, but Meghan will be following developments. Drop me an email [ddonnelly at campaignmoney dot org] with any thoughts, ideas, interesting tidbuts, etc. -- I'll be getting email, or leave a comment below.

Read this excerpt from R.G. Ratcliffe's Houston Chronicle article this morning about directions the TRMPAC case could take:

But Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle hinted that he might have indicted DeLay if the congressional leader had fallen under his jurisdiction. Because DeLay lives in Sugar Land, jurisdiction under Texas election law would fall to Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey Jr.

In all the stories, predictions, and hopes regarding the Ronnie Earle investigation into Tom DeLay's conduct in the 2002 Texas state legislative elections, there is one line I was worried about someday reading. From the AP story on yesterday's indictment of TRMPAC:

Embattled Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee (TRMPAC) and the Texas Association of Business (TAB) have been indicted on charges of illegally using corporate money to fund Republican legislative campaigns in 2002.

According to the Austin-American Statesman, this morning's indictments include 128 counts against the business group and two against the political action committee.

For the first time since the House lobbying scandals broke, a company has said they were told that a contribution to Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political action committee TRMPAC would curry them favor with him and help them influence legislation.

Jack Abramoff, the gift that keeps on giving.

The lede and then some, from AP:

A casino-rich tribe wrote checks for at least $55,000 to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political groups, but the donations were never publicly disclosed and the tribe was directed to divert the money to other groups that helped Republicans, tribal documents show.

We released the following statement today...

TEXAS JUDGE FINDS DELAY’S POLITICAL COMMITTEE GUILTY OF VIOLATING CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW

Washington—The watchdog group Public Campaign Action Fund released the following statement from its National Campaigns Director, David Donnelly, regarding today’s ruling against Tom DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC):

Initial coverage from...

Austin American-Statesman

Associated Press