Texas Gov. Rick Perry is his state’s first governor in nearly a century to be indicted on criminal charges. The potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate said the allegations of abuse of power and coercion of a public official are politically motivated.
Here are some questions and answers about the charges:
Q: What started all this?
A: After Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg was arrested for drunken driving in April 2013, Perry threatened to veto $7.5 million in funding for the state’s ethics watchdog unit in her office unless she resigned. Lehmberg is an elected Democrat and Republicans have long accused her public corruption prosecutors of targeting conservatives.
Q: Was Perry allowed to veto the money?
A: Yes. The governor has line-item veto authority to nix any spending in the state budget.
Q: Then why the grand jury investigation?
A: Lehmberg refused to resign and Perry vetoed the funding for her office. A left-leaning watchdog group filed a formal complaint that accused Perry of trying to leverage his power and force an elected official from office. A Texas judge then assigned a special prosecutor to investigate.
Q: How strong are the charges against Perry?
A: He is accused of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant, which are both felonies and carry possible prison sentences. But legal experts and even some Democrats believe getting a conviction will be challenging, largely because there is no question that Perry wields veto authority. They say proving this went beyond hardball politics will be a difficult bar for prosecutors to reach.
Q: What’s next for Perry?
A: The longest-serving governor in Texas history didn’t seek re-election and will step down in January after 14 years in office. He’s expected to be formally arraigned in an Austin court as early as next week and has given no indication the charges will stop him from considering another run for the White House. But having the word “indictment” associated with Perry could tarnish his image if he decides to seek the presidency.
(AP)
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Politics aside, the fact remains that the “Public Integrity Unit had been conducting an investigation of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, which received a steady stream of lucrative state grants. The investigation, since concluded, led to the indictment of one of the institute’s former executives for improperly awarding an $11 million grant to a Dallas firm.”
This in itself can be deemed sufficient motive to force Lehmberg from office.
I guess we are seeing the socialist liberal democreep playbook in use on Gov Perry.
Remember, the libs will ALWAYS show whom they are deathly afraid of.
They’ve done it before and they will do it again.
It is sad though that Perry is being attacked and probably so because he is making a run for the White House. I betcha that since Obummer screwed up so bad that the Dems are attacking anyone that is running for the White House that is not a democrat and fear that they will loose to a Republician which is not a bad thing all things considering….
Trying to shut down investigations into your cronies may or not be a crime. But it still stinks to high heaven! Andrew Cuomo is under investigation for the same thing. Will Mark Levin defend Andrew Cuomo? Or does he only think that Republicans do no wrong.
The fact is that Rick Perry transformed Texas into the world center for crony-based political payoffs — and that is saying something given that two of his contemporary New York governors were George Pataki and Andrew Cuomo. Republicans love to accuse Barack Obama of crony capitalism, but in fact Perry is miles and miles and miles ahead of Obama on this. The shocking thing is that some of those same Republicans actually take Perry seriously as a Presidential candidate.
The only person maintaining dignity on this is Wendy Davis. She correctly stated that the charges were serious but she refused to call for Perry to resign. She knows that he is entitled to his day in court.