Fresh delay would put off Texas suit against Coleman donor until May

Both sides in the Texas lawsuit accusing Minnesota businessman Nasser Kazeminy of funneling money to Norm Coleman want to extend an existing 60-day delay by another 30 days, putting off any possible trial action until early May. That’s about the time by which the former U.S. senator said today he expects the Minnesota Supreme Court to rule on an appeal that he has promised to file in his legal effort to overturn Democrat Al Franken’s 312-vote lead in their disputed Senate race.

Coleman isn’t named in the lawsuit (or in a similar suit pending in Delaware), but he is implicated by charges that Kazeminy ordered officers of a business he controlled, Houston-based Deep Marine Technology, to send $100,000 to Hays Companies, the St. Paul insurance firm where Coleman’s wife, Laurie, works.

The two former Deep Marine executives who brought the suit have given sworn testimony that although the payments were ostensibly for insurance advice, they don’t know of any such service being rendered. And, they claim, Kazeminy introduced his instructions by saying, “United States senators don’t make shit.”

Coleman charged that the lawsuit, filed shortly before last November’s election, was meant to damage his campaign. He blamed his political enemies, including Franken — a charge the Democrat denied.