STORY: "Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is indicted on charge of abuse of power" by reporter Manny Fernandez, published by the New York Times on August 15, 2014.
GIST: Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was indicted on two felony counts on Friday
by a state grand jury examining his handling of a local district
attorney’s drunken driving arrest and the state financing for a public
corruption unit under the lawyer’s control. The indictment was returned late Friday in Austin. The
investigation centered on Mr. Perry’s veto power as governor. His
critics asserted that he used that power as leverage to try to get an
elected official and influential Democrat — Rosemary Lehmberg, the
district attorney in Travis County — to step down after her arrest for
drunken driving last year. Ms. Lehmberg is Austin’s top prosecutor and
oversees a powerful public corruption unit that investigates state,
local and federal officials; its work led to the 2005 indictment of a
former Republican congressman, Tom DeLay on charges of violating
campaign finance laws. Following
Ms. Lehmberg’s arrest, Mr. Perry and his aides threatened to veto $7.5
million in state dollars for the public corruption unit in her office
unless she resigned. The governor followed through on his threat,
vetoing the money by stating that he could not support “continued state
funding for an office with statewide jurisdiction at a time when the
person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the
public’s confidence.” Mr.
Perry’s detractors said that his moves crossed the line from hard-ball
politics to criminal acts that violated state laws. His aides denied
that he did anything wrong and said that he acted in accordance with the
veto power granted to every governor under the Texas Constitution. Ms.
Lehmberg resisted calls for her to resign and remains in office.........For
Mr. Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, the criminal
investigation had the potential to mar his legacy as his tenure neared
an end. Along with his blustery image as a tough-talking, pistol-packing
Texan, Mr. Perry has made it a point throughout his nearly 14 years as
governor to tout his ethics and Christianity. He summed up his views in a
book, published in 2008, about the values he learned as a Boy Scout; it
was called “On My Honor.”
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/us/gov-rick-perry-of-texas-is-indicted-over-veto-of-funds-for-das-office.html?emc=edit_na_20140815&nlid=57629086&_r=0
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
