After six years, a Grand Jury and a thousand pages of documents including staff emails, the Justice Department last week dropped its investigation into former Majority Leader Tom Delay’s ties with disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff. “I think they’d just reached a dead end. They certainly were very thorough – they talked to everybody,” says Richard Cullen, the McGuire Woods attorney who represented DeLay in the case.
Cullen noted that the length of the investigation was highly unusual. This has been very, very long,” he told TIME. The story was first reported by Politico.
DeLay still has one charge pending in Texas court. “I’m sure he’s very eager to see that done,” says Cullen, who is not representing DeLay in that case. A hearing in that case is scheduled for August 24 and is expected to come to trial in the fall. An email to DeLay’s office seeking comment was not immediate answered.