Ain’t easy running for President when you’re under indictment.
A corndog in every deep fat fryer
Yet for all the implications of seeking the White House as a criminal defendant, Thursday’s announcement brings another far less political reminder: The case, quite simply, is still ongoing, unaffected by months of legal bickering and bluster. For Craig McDonald, head of Texans for Public Justice, the group whose complaint sparked the indictment, the judicial slog has been anything but surprising.
“We always thought it wouldn’t go away very quickly, and that still is the case,” said McDonald, who expects the case to continue for at least another year. “He’s not going to be able to remove this yoke from around his neck quickly.”
Perry predicted in February that the charges would be “put behind us, hopefully by the end of March-April timetable.” He also declared at the time the case is “never going to go to trial.”
So far, his lawyers have been successful in heading off a trial — but perhaps not in the ways for which they hoped.
“For nine months the parties have exchanged hundreds of pages of briefs on these issues,” special prosecutor Michael McCrum wrote in a court filing earlier this month. “We are no closer to a resolution.”
[…]
Backed by a high-powered legal team, Perry quickly sought to portray the two charges — abuse of power and coercion of a public servant — as a political witch hunt in the heart of Texas’ most liberal county. Fellow Republicans, including some potential 2016 opponents, rallied to his side, as did less likely supporters such as David Axelrod, a former top adviser to President Obama, and Alan Dershowitz, the famed liberal law professor.
Nowadays, however, the indictment has become more of a headache for Perry than cause célèbre.
Visiting Judge Bert Richardson, a Republican, has done Perry few favors. In November, Richardson refused to dismiss the indictment on procedural grounds. Two months later, he again declined to toss out the case, that time on constitutional grounds. And in February, Richardson denied Perry’s request to see a pretrial list of witnesses who appeared before the grand jury.
At this point, Perry’s best bet is a breakthrough at the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin, where his lawyers are seeking to reverse Richardson’s second refusal to throw out the case. A ruling is expected any day now, but even it could have an asterisk next to the outcome: One of the justices, Bob Pemberton, used to work for Perry and has so far resisted calls for recusal.
See here for the background. Guess that means Justice Pemberton isn’t going to recuse himself. If the Third Court refuses to come to Perry’s rescue, then I don’t see how anyone can make the “partisan witch hunt” claim with any credibility again. I mean, by that point a Republican judge and an all-Republican panel of appeals court judges will have allowed the charges to stand. It would also greatly undercut the arguments made during this legislative session by Republicans about moving the Public Integrity Unit out of the Travis County DA’s office, not that that would make any difference at this point. If they do let Perry off the hook, then he’ll do a victory dance until we’re all sick of it, and Tom DeLay will crawl out from under a rock to add to the festiveness of it all. One way or the other, it will dominate the news cycle.