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AUSTIN – A state judge on Tuesday refused to throw out an indictment accusing former Gov. Rick Perry of abusing his veto authority to try to force out a local prosecutor. Perry, who is actively eyeing another presidential bid, was indicted last summer. The charges stem from his 2013 threat to veto funding for a public corruption unit overseen by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg unless she resigned after a drunken-driving arrest. Lehmberg stayed in office after serving jail time, and Perry axed the funding. The Republican said that Lehmberg, a Democrat, had lost the public’s confidence. A grand...

The biggest mystery that never unraveled in Florida Election 2014 has to be super-uber trial attorney Steve Mostyn. Why would a Houston multimillionaire with no current business in the Sunshine State out-donate billionaire George Soros, giving it to Democrat Charlie Crist's Florida gubernatorial campaign and the Florida Democratic Party? We never did get to the bottom of it. Crist and Mostyn didn't really know each other before the campaign. What did Mostyn want? Soros, founder of the far-left Open Society Institute, who advocates bringing European social democracy to the United States, only gave Crist a smidgen over $1 million. But...

The nominee to replace Eric Holder as the US Attorney General was announced today by the White House. Travis County, Texas District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg was named. Although not a national figure or Federal Deputy Attorney General, Rosemary Lehmberg garnered national notoriety by engineering the indictment of Gov. Rick Perry. Valarie Jarrett, special adviser to the president, worked with an ABA search committee to find a replacement for Holder. The committee exhausted several lists of recently disciplined and disbarred lawyers seeking a lawyer with similar professional ethics and standards as Holder without success. Turning to other available pools of possible...

ericynot1 wrote:As is so often the case, Ransom, in an effort to tarnish Democrats, has twisted things and left out much of the interesting stuff about this story. The special prosecutor, Michael McCrum, who investigated this case against Perry, and took it to a grand jury, is anything but a political hack. He's an ex-cop (four years in Dallas and Arlington, TX) turned lawyer/ federal prosecutor who's known to be non-partisan (donates money to candidates from both parties, though more to Republicans), and was appointed by Bert Richardson, a Republican judge appointed by GW Bush. Brian Wice, Tom DeLay's attorney...

<p>Gov. Rick Perry (R) seems to be enjoying the spotlight that has come with pushing back to his recent indictment.</p> <p>The latest move: His new political action committee unveiled a T-shirt featuring Perry's mug shot. The back of the shirt features the mug shot of District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, whose character Perry has repeatedly tried to attack while making her the poster child of his pushback.</p>

".......Lehmberg, who plead guilty and accepted a 45-day jail sentence, has declined to comment about the case. But the Travis County Democrats issued a statement calling Perry’s tactics “character assassination and deflection.” “We didn’t expect Gov. Perry to take responsibility for his actions, but smearing Rosemary Lehmberg and complaining the indictment was political does not answer the charges,” said Joe Deshotel, a spokesman for the county party.

If this indictment isn’t dismissed on the Defendant’s first motion, then we need to reconvene that grand jury to review a multi-count indictment on a slew of charges against Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Lois Lerner, and many others in the federal government who have threatened, coerced, and harassed countless Texans, banks, businesses, and citizens with actions and consequences—including sham indictments, criminal prosecutions, actual and threatened imprisonment–far more pernicious and insidious than an executive veto. Allowing anyone to abuse the criminal justice system and the extraordinary power of a prosecutor even to persuade a grand jury to obtain an indictment...

Drunk, Belligerent, Threatening Officers And Kicking The Door To Her Cell: The ugly video of Texas district attorney's DWI arrest that's behind Governor Rick Perry's indictment (Pics in URL) Rosemary Lehmberg, Austin's top prosecutor, was arrested for drunk driving in April 2013 and later pleaded guilty Video from her arrest and booking shows her being abusive toward officers and repeatedly demanding they call the sheriff Perry demanded Lehmberg step down after the arrest and said he would veto funding for her office, but Lehmberg refused Lehmberg ran a public corruption unit that pursued charges against Republicans Perry is charged with...

On Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Texas Gov. Rick Perry's enthusiastic embrace of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is a magnet that lures more illegal immigrants to America – just like President Barack Obama's temporary amnesty program for DREAMers. “President Obama won’t send them home, and Gov. Perry has done the same thing by giving them in-state tuition," Paul told the Wall Street Journal during a significant Iowa trip. "That’s a beacon without any kind of border security."

OKAY. It's obvious this is another Tom Delay type witch hunt. My question isn't really if there is any validity to this. It's more about if it will actually work this time against Gov. Perry or will it (hopefully) backfire and shine a big bright light on the corruption that is the Dem party today. Your feedback is much appreciated... Oh, and if "they" can be allowed to get away with this, shouldn't the same thing happen to the two most corrupt gov employees we have right now? Obama and Holder. I'm hoping if we all break out our new...

The Republican governor is accused of abusing his official powers by publicly promising to veto $7.5 million for the state public integrity unit at the Travis County District Attorney's office. He was indicted by an Austin grand jury Friday.

A Travis County grand jury Friday indicted Gov. Rick Perry on two charges related to his effort last year to force District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign after her drunken driving arrest.

In a sign that the indictment of Texas Gov. Rick Perry for abuse of office and coercion may not be having the political effects some have hoped for, Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican junior senator from Texas, has taken to his Facebook page to express support for the governor. Cruz is considered a possible rival to Perry for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. However differences are being set aside, at least for the time being, to rally around Perry.“Unfortunately, there has been a sad history of the Travis County District Attorney's Office engaging in politically-motivated prosecutions, and this...

Joaquin Castro ✔ @JoaquinCastrotx Follow For the sake of Texas, Governor Perry should resign following his indictment on two criminal felony counts involving abuse of office. 5:58 PM - 15 Aug 2014 That didn’t take long. Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro on Friday night called for Gov. Rick Perry to resign “for the sake of Texas” just hours following the announcement of Perry’s indictment on two criminal felony counts involving abuse of office.

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry was indicted on two felony counts for abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant late Friday by a Travis County grand jury. The case stems from Perry’s vetoing the $7.5 million biennial funding for the Travis County Public Integrity Unit last year. He threatened to withhold the money unless District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg resigned. In announcing the indictment, special prosecutor Michael McCrum of San Antonio said he felt confident of the charges brought against the governor and was “ready to go forward.”

Video of Lemberg's arrest as reported by KXAN.

They say a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich, and this always seemed like hyperbole, until Friday night a Texas grand jury announced an indictment of governor Rick Perry. The “crime” for which Perry faces a sentence of 5 to 99 years in prison is vetoing funding for a state agency. The conventions of reporting — which treat the fact of an indictment as the primary news, and its merit as a secondary analytic question — make it difficult for people reading the news to grasp just how farfetched this indictment is.

SAN ANTONIO — A defense attorney whose client killed two men in a drunken crash found himself before the same judge Friday, accused of contempt for allegedly telling a witness to disappear so prosecutors could not recall her during the trial. Mike McCrum vehemently denies the allegations of wrongdoing by the district attorney´s office. If visiting Judge Dick Alcala agrees the accusation is legitimate, McCrum potentially could face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $500.

AUSTIN — Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Saturday that the indictment against him was an “outrageous” abuse of power and vowed to fight it. “This indictment amounts to nothing more than abuse of power and I cannot and will not allow that to happen,” Perry said at a news conference on Saturday. Perry spoke a day after a grand jury indicted the Republican on two felony counts of abuse of power for making good on a veto threat. He dismissed the prosecution as a “farce.” A special prosecutor spent months calling witnesses and presenting evidence that Perry broke the law...

Governor Rick Perry refused to fund Lehmberg’s office. So on Friday Democrats decided to make a stand for drunk drivers everywhere and indict Governor Rick Perry. On Saturday Governor Rick Perry held a press conference. Rick stands by his decision. Here’s what the governor had to say about the indictment. “Here’s what I think is really important for the people to understand, not just Texans but this country. And, that is, we have seen an office in the form of the Travis County District Attorney’s office. The lead, legal individual for criminal affairs in this county and overseeing public officials...