Officially: Indicted for 'abuse of official capacity'
Rick Perry indicted for abuse of power by grand jury - report by Benjy Sarlin
Texas Governor Rick Perry was indicted Friday by a grand jury on abuse of power charges stemming from his battle to defund a state-funded bureau of anti-corruption investigators.
The suit originated from a standoff between Perry and Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg after Lehmberg was arrested for drunk driving in April 2013 and subsequently pleaded guilty.
Perry publicly demanded that Lehmberg, a Democrat, resign from office or he would block funding for the Public Integrity Unit, the state anti-corruption division run out of the Travis County District Attorney’s office. She refused and Perry, as promised, took action.
The Public Integrity Unit was a politically sensitive target because it was associated with high-profile investigations that had sometimes roped in high-ranking Republicans. It famously indicted then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas in 2005 on fundraising-related charges.
For a bit of back story from James Moore
The perils of Rick Perry - By James C. Moore | April 25, 2014
A special prosecutor in Austin has impaneled a grand jury to examine allegations that the governor of Texas may have bribed and coerced a key state official to force her out of office. At the time, her office was investigating one of Perry's signature projects, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute. (Watchdog group Texas for Public Justice filed the complaint with the prosecutors.)
Rosemary Lehmberg, the Travis County district attorney, oversees the Public Integrity Unit, which investigates possible corruption in state government. Her office had launched the investigation of the multibillion-dollar cancer research agency after 18 scientists, including the Nobel laureate director, resigned in protest. They had claimed that investment decisions for that organization were being made without proper scientific review and that tens of millions of dollars were ending up in the hands of Perry supporters and donors for their business ventures. One former executive of the agency had been indicted in connection with an improperly awarded $11 million grant, and the case is pending.
So another republican wants to veto funding for the
Public Integrity Unit, the state anti-corruption division when that same republican gets caught by that anti-corruption division for corruption -
alleged corruption that is
No wonder the GOP is so sensitive about "waste, fraud, and abuse" in this country - It's personal when ya mess with their "free market" corruption. Except when it comes to who is going to pay
Perry plans to have his lawyer paid out of taxpayer funds.
I probably shouldn't, because this rampant republican corruption is serious, but I'm going to anyway - lol