The state's criminal investigation of Tom DeLay and his two associates, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, resumed this morning in a Travis County courtroom where Judge Pat Priest ruled that the former U.S. House majority leader would be tried before the others.

The state had hoped to first argue its case against the two men, who face lesser violations of the election code, before taking on the weightier money laundering charge against DeLay. All three defendants attended the hearing. DeLay appeared subdued throughout much of the proceedings, sitting next to his wife in a row near the front ...

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