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Texas governor Rick Perry says felony indictment is political Texas governor Rick Perry: indictment is 'partisan political theatrics'
(35 minutes later)
The Texas governor, Rick Perry, said on Saturday he stands by his veto, and called the indictment against him an “outrageous” abuse of power. The Texas governor, Rick Perry, on Saturday angrily called an indictment against him a “farce of a prosecution”, and said allegations that he abused his power were politically motivated.“It is outrageous that some would use partisan political theatrics to rip away at the very fabric of our state’s constitution,” he said during a brief but somewhat emotional press conference in Austin. “This indictment amounts to nothing more than abuse of power and I cannot and I will not allow that to happen.
Perry, a Republican, held a news conference a day after a grand jury indicted him on two felony counts of abuse of power, for making good on a veto threat regarding $7.5m (£4.5m) in funding for the state public integrity unit at the Travis County district attorney’s office. “We don’t settle political differences with indictments in this country.”
“This indictment amounts to nothing more than abuse of power and I cannot and will not allow that to happen,” Perry said. Perry, the first Texas governor to be indicted since 1917, was speaking publicly for the first time since he was indicted, on Friday.
The possible 2016 presidential hopeful, the first Texas governor to be indicted since 1917, dismissed the charges as nakedly political. The governor, who will step down in January 2015 and who is believed to be lining up a second run for the Republican presidential nomination, was indicted by an Austin grand jury on two felony counts of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. Maximum punishment on the first charge is five to 99 years in prison. The second is two to 10 years.
The indictments are related to Perry vetoing funding because the Democratic official heading the office refused to resign after being convicted of drunken driving. Perry, who said during the news conference he would fight the indictment, is accused of abusing his power by vetoing $7.5m (£4.5m) of funding for the state’s anti-corruption unit. The governor followed through on a threat to veto the funding because the official overseeing the unit, Travis County district attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat who was arrested for drunk-driving in April 2013, refused to step down.
Perry said on Saturday he would make the same decision again, and said he had done nothing wrong.“I think Americans and Texans who have seen this agree with me,” Perry said.Republicans have rallied round. The Texas US senator Ted Cruz, a Tea Party favourite and a presumed rival for the 2016 nomination, said on Twitter: “Governor Perry is a friend, he’s a man of integrity.”
Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida who is also thought likely to run, used Twitter to say: “The indictment of Governor Perry seems politically motivated and ridiculous. Major overreach and an encroachment on his veto authority.”
Perhaps the most surprising message of support for Perry, however, came from David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Obama who called the indictment “sketchy”.
Unless he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit for other than his stated reason, Perry indictment seems pretty sketchy.
The investigative unit is based in Austin, a heavily Democratic city where the grand jury was seated. The rest of Texas is heavily Republican.The investigative unit is based in Austin, a heavily Democratic city where the grand jury was seated. The rest of Texas is heavily Republican.
Answering questions on Saturday, Perry talked about the ongoing crisis at the US-Mexico border, which he has recently addressed repeatedly on state and national stages.
“I’m going to continue to deal with the big, important issues that are important to the people of the state of Texas, and for that matter this country,” he said. “We have a border that is not secure because of what the federal government has failed to do.”
Perry said he had recently spoken to the mother of a border patrol agent who was killed by someone who had crossed the US-Mexico border illegally several times.
“That mother expects me to do the job and keep the citizens of this state safe,” he said. “And that is what I’m going to do from today until I leave office in January 2015.”