[kaotic]

Wasn't really a fan of Perry, but I agree with him on vetoing funds Rosemary Lehmberg for her department. She got a DUI, acted like an ass and refused to resign.

Opinions ?

Quote:

AUSTIN, Tex. — With a large crowd of supporters chanting his name, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas turned himself at the Travis County courthouse on Tuesday to be booked on felony charges of abuse of power.

Mr. Perry was fingerprinted and photographed. His arraignment is scheduled for Friday, though Mr. Perry will be in New Hampshire.

“I’m here today because I believe in the rule of law,” he said. “I’m going to enter this courthouse with my head held high.”

He has called the charges politically motivated. “I’m going to fight this injustice with every fiber of my being,” he said. “And we will prevail.”
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

A Travis County grand jury indicted Mr. Perry on Friday on charges that stemmed from his efforts to force the resignation of Rosemary Lehmberg, the Travis County district attorney, after her arrest on a drunken-driving charge. Mr. Perry threatened to veto funding to her office unless she quit, a threat that he ultimately carried out by vetoing $7.5 million earmarked for the Public Integrity Unit that was intended to fight official corruption.
Photo

Mr. Perry, the state’s longest-serving governor, has responded by denouncing the indictment and assailing Ms. Lehmberg’s behavior the night she was arrested. Mr. Perry has been charged with two felony counts of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant, which together could carry a maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison. He is the first sitting Texas governor in nearly a century to be indicted.

His actions, he said Tuesday, were not only legal, but the right thing to do. “I will not allow this attack on our system of government to stand,” he said.

The governor has hired a prominent legal to team to represent him.

“We are going to fight and we are going to win,” Tony G. Buzbee, a Houston trial lawyer who will lead the five-member legal team, said on Monday. “This case is about the rule of law.”

Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog group whose complaint led to the grand jury investigation, has countered Mr. Perry’s assertion, noting that the special prosecutor who oversaw the investigation is a Republican from San Antonio. “No Democrat has had a finger on this,” Mr. McDonald told CNN. “For the governor to say this is a partisan witch hunt just doesn’t stand in the face of the facts.”

Mr. Perry’s strategy has been to fight the charges head-on, beginning with a defiant news conference at the State Capitol less than 24 hours after the indictment was handed up, followed by a Sunday talk show appearance. Mr. Perry is scheduled to appear Saturday in New Hampshire, the traditional site of the nation’s first presidential primary, at a fund-raiser in Stratham for the state’s Republican Party.

Lawyers for Mr. Perry will appear at the arraignment, but a spokesman, Felix Browne, said the governor was not required to be present.

The legal team echoed Mr. Perry’s denunciation of the charges and signaled that Ms. Lehmberg’s behavior the night of her arrest will clearly be an element of their defense. They aired portions of a widely shown video showing Ms. Lehmberg after her April 12 arrest, at one point telling officers, “Now you’ve ruined my entire political career.”
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story

“Anybody that sees that tape,” Mr. Buzbee said, “would have lost confidence in the Travis County district attorney.”

Other lawyers on the legal team include David L. Botsford of Austin, Bobby R. Burchfield of Washington and Benjamin L. Ginsberg, who served as counsel for the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000 and played a key role in the Florida recount. Mr. Botsford has served as Mr. Perry’s lawyer in the grand jury investigation over his veto threat.

Also on the team, but not present Monday, is Thomas R. Phillips, the former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

Mr. Buzbee, a former Marine Corps infantry officer, has been described as one of the most successful trial lawyers in the country. He has won more than $1 billion for his clients, including the largest-ever jury verdict against BP in 2009, according to his biography. He was a major supporter of Mr. Perry’s short-lived presidential campaign in 2012.

Mr. Buzbee acknowledged that the state “will pay some part of this defense” but declined to speculate on the cost of what could become a prolonged legal battle.

“Without this wrongful indictment, the taxpayers of the state of Texas would not have to pay for such a defense,” he said

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/us/tex...wyers.html