Tom DeLay chronology
Nov. 17, 2004: House GOP caucus rules are changed to allow leaders who are indicted to retain their leadership positions.
January 2005: House Republicans reverse a rule passed in November 2004 that would have allowed DeLay to keep his leadership post if he were indicted.
Jan. 4, 2005: The House adopts a rules package that would give the GOP majority greater control of the ethics committee.
March 2005: Media reports spur Democrats to question DeLay's relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under federal investigation. DeLay has asked the House ethics committee to review allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid some of DeLay's overseas travel expenses. DeLay has denied knowing that the expenses were paid by Abramoff.
March 28, 2005: The Wall Street Journal editorial page, a leading voice in conservative circles, criticizes DeLay.
April 2005: House Republicans scrap controversial new ethics committee rules passed earlier in the year that would have made it harder to proceed with an ethics investigation. Democrats said the rules were meant to protect DeLay.
April 25, 2005: Former Rep. Nick Lampson of Texas – a Democrat defeated in 2004 – files to run against DeLay in 2006.
April 26, 2005: DeLay accompanies President Bush to a Galveston, Texas, forum on Social Security. The move is widely seen as a public show of support for DeLay.
April 27, 2005: The House votes 406 to 20 to reverse the ethics rules changes made in January.
September 2005: DeLay is indicted on charges of conspiring to violate Texas political fundraising law and forced to step aside as majority leader. Ellis and Colyandro are indicted on additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in 2002 legislative races.
Sept. 8, 2005: TRMPAC and a prominent Texas business group are indicted by a Texas grand jury.
Sept. 28, 2005: DeLay is indicted on one count of conspiracy stemming from fundraising during the 2002 state House election campaign. Forced to step down as majority leader, DeLay calls the Texas grand jury's action "one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history."
Oct. 3, 2005: DeLay is indicted on additional charges accusing him of conspiracy to launder campaign money and actual money laundering in connection with his efforts to help elect Republican candidates to the Texas Legislature in 2002.
October 2005: DeLay, Ellis, and Colyandro are indicted by a second grand jury on charges of conspiring to launder money and money laundering. DeLay turns himself in to the Harris County sheriff's office in Houston, where he is fingerprinted and photographed. He smiles broadly in his mug shot to thwart its use by political opponents. DeLay's attorneys win removal of a Democratic judge from the case because he has donated to Democratic causes and candidates. The Associated Press reports that DeLay and Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, who succeeded DeLay as majority leader, orchestrated a political money carousel in 2000 that diverted donations secretly collected for presidential convention parties to some of their own causes.
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