Pair say they didn't see evidence connected to DeLay investigation

04:45 PM EDT on Sunday, October 2, 2005

By TIM WYATT / The Dallas Morning News

Two Texas filmmakers have found themselves in the middle of a political maelstrom over their unfinished — and until recently, ignored — documentary on Republican fundraising tactics during the 2002 elections.

Jim Schermbeck and Mark Birnbaum spent most of the last two days answering a flurry of calls from the media about their two-year project, The Big Buy, and whether they were given unlimited access to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's grand jury investigation of Texas politicians — including former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

The short answer to that, Mr. Schermbeck said, is no.

"We didn't see any more than anyone else did in the press," Mr. Schermbeck said from his Lubbock home on Saturday.

When clips of the film popped up online after Mr. DeLay's indictment in Austin Wednesday, Mr. Birnbaum said the first reaction by some was to label him as some sort of liberal shill or clueless dupe of Mr. Earle's.

A trickle of hate mail has started to show up at his Dallas home, and some critics are questioning whether his access to Mr. Earle and his staff may have violated the secrecy of the grand jury process.

"Absolutely not," Mr. Birnbaum said. "I was able to sneak into a completely empty grand jury courtroom one afternoon — without permission. We shot one or two grand jurors leaving but blurred their faces."

He said that neither he nor Mr. Schermbeck received or saw any evidence connected with Mr. Earle's investigation.

Mr. Earle defended his cooperation with the filmmakers.

"My office follows all the same proper rules about rightfully protected information for all the media no matter who they are," Mr. Earle said. "I told them the truth, and they thought it was a movie. Go figure. I'm just doing my job."

But Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said Saturday Mr. Earle used the yet-unreleased film as a propaganda tool.

"The film proves that Ronnie Earle's determination to indict Mr. DeLay was scripted from day one," said Mr. Madden, who has viewed some clips of the film recently posted on the Web.

In one clip, Mr. Earle blasts politicians from both political parties who solicit "protection money" from corporate donors.

"That obliterates any argument that this isn't about grandstanding or ... [Mr. Earle's] own political vendetta," Mr. Madden said.

The filmmakers said that they initially planned to follow Mr. DeLay through the investigation but that the congressman wouldn't return their calls.

Instead, they persuaded Mr. Earle to give them some of his time.

"What we've done is produce a film about campaign finance reform without anyone using the phrase itself," Mr. Birnbaum said. "And we decided to style it as a crime story with a noir overlay."

Mr. Birnbaum's Web site touts the film as "Raymond Chandler meets Willie Nelson on the corner of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue ... a Texas noir political detective story that chronicles what some are calling a 'bloodless coup with corporate cash.' "

An earlier version of the film was shown to a crowd of about 300 at the Dallas Video Festival in early August, but the filmmakers plan to re-work the ending, now that Mr. DeLay has taken center stage in Mr. Earle's investigation.

"We couldn't have given this film away last month," Mr. Schermbeck said. "We couldn't get any attention for it, or any money for it. Now, we're getting the attention, but so far it's still self-financed."

Mr. DeLay's staff said he chose not to grant any interviews to the filmmakers two years ago.

Now, Mr. Schermbeck said he hopes the congressman changes his mind.

"We obviously have to do a new ending to this now, and we're going to be calling DeLay's lawyers and staff," Mr. Schermbeck said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.