Texas Governor Rick Perry is indicted for first threatening and then carrying out a threat to veto funds to a District Attorney's office (including their Public Integrity Unit) after the District Attorney is convicted of drunk driving. Here is the "full story" from FoxNews:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been indicted for abuse of power after carrying out a threat to veto funding for state public corruption prosecutors.
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.
Perry said he'd veto the funding if the district attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg, didn't resign. Lehmberg had recently been convicted of drunken driving. The state's Public Integrity Unit operates out of her office.
When Lehmberg refused, Perry carried out his veto, drawing an ethics complaint.
Perry is the first Texas governor indicted in nearly a century. He's leaving office in January, but he's a possible 2016 presidential run.
Now, let that sink in for a moment: a District Attorney was CONVICTED of drunk driving (not simply accused or charged mind you) and because of this, Governor Rick Perry demanded this DA resign or else he was going to veto millions of dollars in state funds for that DA's office. When the DA refused, Rick Perry carried through his threat and is now being indicted for a supposed ethics violation by the "Public Integrity Unit" in the DA's office...
So, Rick Perry's attempt to have a DA take responsibility for her CRIMINAL actions and resign (in other words, showing some INTEGRITY as a DA) is being called unethical?? How about a DISTRICT ATTORNEY being convicted of drunk driving and not resigning as if they did nothing wrong or contrary to their duty as an enforcer of the law?
Need I say more?
UPDATE: Apparently I do. Turns out the DA in question (and the reason Perry vetoed the $7.5 million in funds) was found to have had a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit. Plus, here is a good video on her arrest via KXAN in Texas:
