Texas Gov. Rick Perry to be Investigated for Abusing the Powers of His Office, Bribery and Coercion
This week, a Texas judge said that he plans to have a special
prosecutor look at charges that Gov. Rick Perry broke the law when he
cut funding for state public corruption investigators.
The watchdog group Texans for Public Justice
filed a complaint that stems from an April drunk-driving arrest of
Travis County District Attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg, who oversees the
state’s criminal ethics department. The department’s cases included the
prosecution of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and an
investigation into the state’s $3 billion cancer research agency.
After her arrest, Lehmberg pleaded guilty and
served a reduced sentence of less than 45 days. Amid loud demands from
Perry and the state’s GOP for her to resign, Lehmberg refused. In
response to her defiance, Perry threatened to eliminate $3.7 million
from the state’s annual funding if she did not step down.
Lehmberg remained in office — and Perry made good on his threat, vetoing the money in June.
According to the two-page complaint that was
filed shortly after Perry’s actions, the governor was accused of
violating laws regarding “coercion of a public servant, bribery, abuse
of official capacity and official oppression.”“Governor Perry violated
the Texas Penal Code by communicating offers and threats under which he
would exercise his official discretion to veto the appropriation,” the
executive director of Texans for Public Justice Craig McDonald wrote in
the complaint.
Gov. Perry’s office claimed that they haven’t heard anything in regards to an investigation.
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