From the Trib.
Rosemary Lehmberg
Even after Gov. Rick Perry stripped funding for the agency that prosecutes state public corruption cases, his emissaries worked to swap the resignation of embattled Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg for restoration of the money, several sources told The Texas Tribune this week.
The Tribune learned of the proposal as a grand jury considers whether Perry overstepped his authority last year when he threatened to veto the public integrity unit’s state funding if Lehmberg did not step down after she was arrested for drunken driving. The sources said the offer was made to Lehmberg through several back channels: If Lehmberg — a Democrat whose office was in charge of investigating state officeholders — would resign, Perry would restore the two years in state funds, about $7.5 million, that he had vetoed following her April 12, 2013, arrest and subsequent guilty plea.
“It was communicated to me if she stepped out, [Perry] would restore the funding,” said Travis County Judge Samuel T. Biscoe, a Democrat who said he was one of several people made aware of the proposal from Perry’s office. “I was told his office made the representations.”
[…]
Several sources, who asked not to be identified, citing the grand jury investigation, told the Tribune that Lehmberg was informed of the proposal last July. She was also told, they said, that the proposal came from the governor’s office, about a month after Perry made good on his threat to veto the state funds to the public integrity unit.
“It happened,” one of those sources told the Tribune.
The same sources said Lehmberg rejected the proposal outright because of concerns that such an offer may be illegal.
Reached late Tuesday, Lehmberg declined to comment for this story because of the ongoing grand jury investigation.
Rich Parsons, a spokesman for Perry, said no one from the governor’s office met with Lehmberg.
“Neither the governor nor any member of staff met with or spoke with Ms. Lehmberg,” Parsons said.
Asked if anyone from the governor’s staff told others to convey any offer, he declined to comment, citing the pending grand jury investigation.
That’s a pretty specific, and pretty limited, denial. It does not in any way negate the thesis of this story. Turns out, according to Texas Politics, that’s because Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, the lone Republican on that Court, was the go-between. He confirmed that the key point was Lehmberg resigning; Daugherty blamed her refusal to budge as the reason nothing happened. Now can we agree that – if this story is true – this is about more than just a run-of-the-mill veto by Rick Perry? The Observer, which points out what may turn into Perry’s defense strategy, has more.