Wow.
Corndogs make bad news go down easier
A grand jury indicted Gov. Rick Perry on Friday on charges of abuse of power and coercion as part of an ethics inquiry into his veto of funding for the state’s public integrity unit.
The inquiry began last summer after an ethics complaint was filed alleging that Perry had improperly used a veto to deny funding for the unit, which is housed in the Travis County district attorney’s office and focuses on government corruption and tax fraud.
The indictment throws a major wrench in Perry’s possible presidential ambitions; he was in Iowa last week and was expected in both New Hampshire and South Carolina in coming weeks. Perry is the first Texas governor to be indicted in almost a century.
Perry had been riding high and making national headlines in recent weeks, railing against the Obama administration for a perceived lack of response to the humanitarian crisis on the Texas-Mexico border, then reallocating funds to send National Guard troops there himself.
Now, he’ll be playing defense.
The first count, abuse of official capacity, is a first-degree felony with a potential penalty of five to 99 years in prison. The second count, coercion of a public servant, is a third-degree felony with a penalty of two to 10 years.
Michael McCrum, the special investigator in the case, said he interviewed more than 40 people and reviewed hundreds of documents in the case.
He said that a time would be set up for Perry to come to court, be arraigned and given official notice of his charges.
I’ve done a ton of blogging on this, so click away for the backstory, or read the NYT story and this Observer explainer to get caught up. You can also see the original complaint and press release from TPJ. The key thing to keep in mind is that while a lot of headlines (like this one) will say that Perry was indicted because of the veto of the Public Integrity Unit funds, that’s really not quite accurate. It was the threat of the veto combined with the demand that Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg – elected by the people and not answerable to Rick Perry – accede to Perry’s order or else. That’s where he overstepped his bounds, and it’s what the veto is all about. What happens from here – other than the you-know-what hitting the fan – is anyone’s guess. Remember how Tom DeLay was indicted in 2006 and his legal fate is still unresolved? We could be here for awhile, is what I’m saying. Texas Politics, Trail Blazers, the HuffPo, the Statesman, the Observer, Hair Balls, Burka, the Current, Juanita, the AusChron, PDiddie, Ross Ramsey, and Progress Texas have more.
If he’s convicted, does he lose his governor’s pension (he’s already receiving one now from the state for his prior roles as a public servant)? Just wondering. . .