Texas Gov. Rick Perry Indicted For Abuse Of Power

[Rikurzhen]

He turned himself in; I would never vote him, and still question the charges.

Finally, a liberal with integrity makes an appearance. You must be lonely on this board.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

He turned himself in; I would never vote him, and still question the charges.

What else would you expect him to do – make a run for it?


As with any criminal defendant Perry is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Perry will be afforded comprehensive due process and he clearly has excellent legal representation.


There is no evidence that the charges and indictment were not made in good faith.


That Perry and the partisan right are attempting to make this about 'politics' is unfounded and ridiculous.

 

[LadyGunSlinger]

What else would you expect him to do – make a run for it?


As with any criminal defendant Perry is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Perry will be afforded comprehensive due process and he clearly has excellent legal representation.


There is no evidence that the charges and indictment were not made in good faith.


That Perry and the partisan right are attempting to make this about 'politics' is unfounded and ridiculous.

LMFAO Only the far left kook brigade running around on forums, ie the 3 percenter ghey faction are melting down over Rick Perry and trying to make something over ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.. Most Democrats are distancing themselves from this clusterfuck witch hunt, but not the die hard Obama asslickers.. they love the munchfest.. Circle the wagons at all costs.. Their sloppy drunk fatass DA who spent 20 minutes weaving in and out of the bicycle lane where kids ride, must be protected.

 

[bluesguy1952]

The indictment is for Abuse of Official Capacity (misuse the budget) and coercion of a public servant ( a threat to veto funds unless Lehmberg resigned). I think this was stated on page 1 of this thread but some still do not get it.


Maybe you will understand better if it is explained on a more personal level. Imagine if your boss’s boss came to you and said, either you resign, or I will fire half or the whole department, your friends and family. I’ll bet if it was you, you would take that to the employment commission. I’ll bet the EEOC would get involved in that. That is not a generally accepted way to fire someone.

Only there is more and it gets worse:

The Public Integrity Unit, headed by Lehmberg, is a department of the state of texas in charge of looking for corruption in government. They were investigating CPRIT, a pet project of Perry. CPRIT was his brainchild, and Perry hand picked/appointed the head of it. The head of CPRIT has already been indicted.. In the midst of the investigation Perry told Lehmberg to resign or else he would cut funding of the department. Do you Perry supporters not see something wrong in this scenario? They were investigating Perry’s pet project which has already resulted in one indictment. And he coerced her to get her resignation. Do you need it spelled out for you?

CPRIT (Perry) -----à Investigated by Corruption Unit -----------à Perry cuts funds of CorruptionUnit

As far as I can tell, CPRIT is just another of many Perry slush funds where he takes taxpayer money and awards it to companies. There is a board, handpicked by Perry, to oversee the awards. They get paid by taxpayer money. In the case of CPRIT, there were some scientists to oversee the validity of the companies awarded, but they resigned in disgust. The head of CPRIT was indicted because taxpayer money went to a company that did not go under review (give away taxpayer money) Another award went to a company that was contracted by MD Anderson Cancer Center and the head of MD Anderson was later pushed out.

These awards from Perry’s various slush funds (Texas Enterpprise Fund etc) seem to be going to Republican donors or companies being lured to expand business operations in Texas, only many either go bankrupt or never expand in Texas

 

[martybegan]

Perry surrenders to authorities. His mugshot ain't too bad.

Rick Perry Turns Himself In

Good job by him. He respected the legal system by showing up, but his mug shot shows utter contempt for the charges.

 

[Lovebears65]

Obama should have been arrested years ago .. But he never will.. He abuses his powers all the time . The supreme court has said he has .. But why is he not arrested??

 

[billyerock1991]

Perry really is a comical idiot.

still waiting for those three things that he couldn't remember what he's for ... glasses and all

 

[billyerock1991]

14th largest economy in the world, you fucking commies sure like spending our money and burning our gasoline and natural gas. Fuck off wimp.

so your saying its bigger then these
1United States8,708,870.002
Japan4,395,083.003
Germany2,081,202.004
France1,410,262.005
UnitedKingdom1,373,612.006
Italy1,149,958.007
China1,149,814.008
Brazil760,345.009
Canada612,049.0010
Spain562,245.0011
Mexico474,951.0012
India459,765.0013
Korea, Rep.406,940.0014
Australia389,691.0015
Netherlands384,766.0016
Russian Federation375,345.0017
Argentina281,942.0018
Switzerland260,299.0019
Belgium245,706.0020
Sweden226,388.0021
Austria208,949.0022
Turkey188,374.0023

nothing like making stupid uninformed statements HUH !!!

 

[billyerock1991]

Obama should have been arrested years ago .. But he never will.. He abuses his powers all the time . The supreme court has said he has .. But why is he not arrested??

they didn't say he abused his power they said he didn't have the authority to do what he did ... theres a difference what he did and what you think he did

 

[konradv]

This is funny libturds are so worked up over perry but has blinders on with obama.

Texas libturds??? I'm figuring Perry must have done something really heinous that couldn't be covered up or Texas Republicans would have had the fix in!!!

 

[konradv]

Obama should have been arrested years ago .. But he never will.. He abuses his powers all the time . The supreme court has said he has .. But why is he not arrested??

Because the crimes you think he committed are all in your head.

 

[OKTexas]

so your saying its bigger then these
1United States8,708,870.002
Japan4,395,083.003
Germany2,081,202.004
France1,410,262.005
UnitedKingdom1,373,612.006
Italy1,149,958.007
China1,149,814.008
Brazil760,345.009
Canada612,049.0010
Spain562,245.0011
Mexico474,951.0012
India459,765.0013
Korea, Rep.406,940.0014
Australia389,691.0015
Netherlands384,766.0016
Russian Federation375,345.0017
Argentina281,942.0018
Switzerland260,299.0019
Belgium245,706.0020
Sweden226,388.0021
Austria208,949.0022
Turkey188,374.0023

nothing like making stupid uninformed statements HUH !!!

I guess it just depends on your source, mine was this one which ranks just the TX economy in comparison to the world. In you chart TX would be rolled in with the US. Maybe you are the one that is misinformed.

Texas economy ranking in the world - Texas Economy | EconPost

 

[kaz]

What else would you expect him to do – make a run for it?


As with any criminal defendant Perry is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Perry will be afforded comprehensive due process and he clearly has excellent legal representation.


There is no evidence that the charges and indictment were not made in good faith.


That Perry and the partisan right are attempting to make this about 'politics' is unfounded and ridiculous.

LOL, right, political is when conservatives indict liberals, liberals don't have a political bone in their body though, no way liberals indicting a conservative is political...

 

[kaz]

they didn't say he abused his power they said he didn't have the authority to do what he did ... theres a difference what he did and what you think he did

LOL, you know nothing about Texas. He was indicted in the People's Republic of Austin. Once again, liberals display ignorance proudly on your sleeve...

 

[bluesguy1952]

Perry got a fair prosecutor, genuine jurors

Perry, as a presumed presidential hopeful, is trying to survive by crying political persecution.

But political persecution from whom?

The complaint was filed by Texans for Political Justice. The Director of the non partisan group took his complaint to a chief republican judge, a Perry appointee in fact, who then forwarded it to another republican judge for consideration.

Republican judge Bert Richardson appointed a republican special prosecutor, Michael McCrum.

The defense attorney and formal federal prosecutor has a stellar legal reputation, and a bipartisan one. In 2009 republican senators backed his nomination for US Attorney.

That leaves us with the grand jury. The members were randomly selected from jurors who answered a summons, the same process used to select regular juries which is drivers license files and voter registration rolls. The jurors were selected by republican judge Bert Richardson

Political persecution from who?

The grand jurors attended 8 sessions over 5 months, listening to hours of testimony.


Allegations from perry of political slant offends several grand jurors. The jurors are frustrated by Perry;s dismissal of the indictment as a farce.

One juror who asked not to be named, said public perception about the case will change once the full scope of evidence becomes public.

 

[kaz]

Perry, as a presumed presidential hopeful, is trying to survive by crying political persecution

Perry from the right is getting the Trent Lott treatment. No one was happier when the libs got him then they were. Perry was a horrible Presidential candidate. He was tortured to watch and no fiscal conservative. I'm glad he went down, so as for me, I say thanks! That's after you did fiscal conservatives a solid on Christie's candidacy as well. You're really helping here.

 

[Plasmaball]

what was dishonest?

A task force on government "integrity" run by a partisan scumbag political hack.

yeah but it wasn't so you are being dishonest

 

[kaz]

yeah but it wasn't so you are being dishonest

And you know that ... how?

 

[Stephanie]

yeah but it wasn't so you are being dishonest

And you know that ... how?

they know all, haven't you figured that out yet?

 

[bluesguy1952]

Why Perry will be convicted

Huffington Post

Why Rick Perry Will Be Convicted|James Moore


Perry's advisors have him concentrating on defending his constitutional authority to exercise the line item budget veto.

Except that's not what this case is about.

Perry is accused of using his veto authority to coerce a publicly elected official into leaving office. And when the veto threat, and later the actual exercise of the veto didn't work, he may have tried a bit of bribery, which is why he is facing criminal charges.

Not because he exercised his constitutional veto authority.

Some of the media appear to have adopted the Perry narrative that he wanted to get rid of an irresponsible Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg because she had been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Perry is arguing he eliminated the $7.5 million dollar budget that Lehmberg managed for the Public Integrity Unit (PIU) because she was no longer responsible enough to run the operation.

But the governor probably had another motive.

The PIU had been investigating the Cancer Research and Prevention Institute (CPRIT), a $3 billion dollar taxpayer funded project that awarded research and investment grants to startups targeting cancer cures. The entire scientific review team, including Nobel Laureate scientists, resigned because they said millions were handed out through political favoritism. Investigations by Texas newspapers indicated much of the money was ending up in projects proposed by campaign donors and supporters of Governor Perry. In fact, one of the executives of CPRIT was indicted in the PIU investigation for awarding an $11 million dollar grant to a company without the proposal undergoing any type of review.

Perry might have been the next target.

The same cronyism appeared to be at work in two other large taxpayer accounts called the Emerging Technology Fund (ETF), and the Texas Enterprise Fund, (TEF), which were supposed to be used to help technology startups and assist companies wanting to move to Texas. In total, the governor and his appointees had purview over about $19 billion and where they wanted it invested.

Why not make sure your contributors get some of that sweetness?

If Perry were able to get Lehmberg to resign, he'd have the authority to appoint her replacement. We can assume that would have been a Republican, and that any investigations might have stuttered to a halt. The DA, however, refused, and began to field threats from the governor's office that the PIU budget was to be zeroed out via line item veto. But the exercise of the veto is not what got Perry indicted.

First, he used the veto to threaten a public officeholder. This is abuse of the power of his office. Presidents and governors frequently use the possibility of vetoes to change the course of legislation. But that is considerably different than trying to force an elected officeholder to resign. What Perry did, if true, can be politely called blackmail, and, when he sent emissaries to urge Lehmberg to quit even after his veto, he may have indulged in bribery. According to sources close to the grand jury, Perry dispatched two of his staffers and one high-profile Democrat to tell Lehmberg if she left her office the governor would reinstate the PIU budget. One report indicates there may have been a quid pro quo of a new, more lucrative job for the DA, which is why this case has nothing to do with his right to use the veto.

But that's where Perry will focus his public defense.

Of course, he will also continue his argument this is another manifestation of partisan politics in Austin. That claim is as misleading as his veto rhetoric. There wasn't a single Democrat involved in the investigation and indictment. In fact, Perry appointed the presiding judge in the case, Billy Ray Stubblefield of the 3rd Judicial District. Stubblefield named retired Judge Bert Richardson of Bexar County (San Antonio) to handle the grand jury investigation, and Richardson picked Mike McCrum to be the special prosecutor in the case. McCrum, who withdrew his name from consideration for U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, had the support of the two Republican Texas U.S. Senators and the state's Democratic officeholders, which hardly makes him a Democratic Party hack. (A Washington gridlock over the confirmation process in the U.S. Senate caused him to withdraw.)

That all makes it hard to sell the partisan attack narrative that reporters are spreading for Perry.

The idea that he was concerned about Lehmberg's drunk driving is also fatuous nonsense. Two other Texas DAs were arrested for DUI during Perry's tenure in office and he spoke not a discouraging word about their indiscretions. Kaufman County D.A. Rick Harrison drove the wrong way into traffic and was found guilty of drunk driving in 2009 and in 2003 Terry McEachern, DA of Swisher County, was convicted of a DUI. Perry said nothing. Both of those individuals were Republicans and did not oversee an investigative unit responsible for keeping elected officials honest in the capitol.

The indictments, however, have not left the Texas governor chastened. During his six-minute news conference after they were handed down, he threatened retaliation for the people involved in getting him into this mess, which is probably another form of official abuse he has promised to deliver to his fellow Texans. His central complaint was that the legal and grand jury investigative process was being used to settle political differences and that wasn't something we did in America, which is a startling irony for anyone who knows how Rick Perry first won statewide public office in Texas.