From the Austin 'American-Statesman': "DeLay had appeared to escape criminal scrutiny as early as last year when Travis County prosecutors concluded they did not have the jurisdiction to pursue election code violations against him. Under the law, only
DeLay's local district attorney, a Republican, had jurisdiction, and he expressed no interest in the case.
'But a conspiracy charge falls under the criminal code, not the election statute that bans corporate money from being spent on a campaign. And Earle has the jurisdiction to prosecute DeLay for conspiring with others to circumvent state law.'
So DeLay could put the fix in with his local DA, forcing Earle to rope him with a State conspiracy charge?
Speculation in the mainstream media is that DeLay left no direct evidence of criminal actions, so the 'conspiracy' catch-all was used ... "they couldn't make the substantive case," according to CNN. However, it appears that for that so-called "substantive case," the fix was in with his buddy at home, so Earle was forced to bring the only State charge available?