Texas Gov. Rick Perry vows ‘injustice’ fight as he’s booked
AUSTIN, Texas – Gov. Rick Perry was defiant Tuesday as he was booked on abuse of power charges, telling dozens of cheering supporters outside a Texas courthouse that he would “fight this injustice with every fiber of my being.”
Showing no hint of worry on his face, Perry flashed a confident smile in his mug shot – then headed to a nearby Austin eatery for vanilla ice cream, even gleefully documenting his excursion via Twitter.
The Republican, who is mulling a second presidential run in 2016, was indicted after carrying out a threat to veto funding for state public corruption prosecutors. He has dismissed the case as a political ploy, and supporters chanting his last name and holding signs – some declaring “Stop Democrat Games” and “Rick is Right” – greeted him upon arriving at a Travis County Courthouse in Austin.
“I’m going to fight this injustice with every fiber of my being. And we will prevail,” Perry said before walking inside the building to have his fingerprints taken and stand for the mug shot.
The longest-serving governor in Texas history was indicted last week for coercion and official oppression for publicly promising to veto $7.5 million for the state public integrity unit, which investigates wrongdoing by elected officials and is run by the Travis County district attorney’s office. Perry threatened the veto if the county’s Democratic district attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg, stayed in office after a drunken driving conviction.
Lehmberg refused to resign and Perry carried out the veto, drawing an ethics complaint from a left-leaning government watchdog group.
Perry was indicted by a grand jury in Austin.
If convicted, Perry could face a maximum 109 years in prison – though legal experts across the political spectrum have said the case against him may be a tough sell to a jury.
No one disputes that Perry has the right to veto any measures passed by the state Legislature. But the complaint against Perry alleges that by publicly threatening a veto and trying to force Lehmberg to resign, he coerced her.