AUSTIN, Oct 21: Representative Tom DeLay appeared in court on Friday to face campaign-finance charges, but the session was cut short by his lawyer’s argument that the judge is a Democrat who cannot give a fair trial to the former second-ranking Republican in the US House of Representatives.

State District Judge Bob Perkins said he would ask another judge to rule on a motion filed on Thursday by DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin. The motion asks that Perkins step aside from the case on the grounds that he gave money to Democratic candidates and the activist group MoveOn.org.

“It seems to me this is going to be a continuing issue when there’s a Democratic judge and Republican defendant,” Perkins said.

DeLay was once one of the nation’s most powerful politicians, nicknamed “The Hammer” for his iron-fisted control of House Republicans, but now is an indicted felon fighting aggressively for his political life. He strode into the heavily secured courtroom with a smile on his face and wife Christine by his side.

Because of the abbreviated hearing, he did not stand before the judge to hear the charges against him or make any statements in court.

Afterward, he went to the nearby Texas Capitol, and with it as a backdrop, repeated that he is not guilty of a crime and only the victim of a Democratic political vendetta.

“I have been charged for defeating Democrats,” a defiant DeLay said. “I have been charged for advancing the Republican agenda.”

He and colleagues Jim Ellis and John Colyandro have been indicted by state grand juries in Austin for conspiracy and money laundering in a campaign-finance plan conducted through DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee, or TRMPAC.

They are accused of laundering $190,000 in corporate campaign contributions through the Republican National Committee for distribution to Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature. Texas law forbids the use of corporate money in political campaigns.—Reuters