Rick Perry Faces Unusual Criminal Probe in Texas

Source: WSJ

AUSTIN, Texas—As he hints at a possible second bid for president, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is contending with an unusual criminal investigation into whether he abused his authority, a case that legal experts say has virtually no precedent in modern Texas history.

A grand jury was impaneled in April to consider a watchdog group's complaint filed last year. It alleged the Republican governor may have violated Texas law by withholding money from a prosecutorial unit because its Democratic district attorney refused to resign after pleading guilty to drunken driving. Mr. Perry vetoed $7.5 million in funding for the Travis County Public Integrity Unit, which handles political corruption investigations, following the drunken-driving arrest of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg. The watchdog group, Texans for Public Justice, claimed that Mr. Perry's actions likely constituted coercion and bribery... The grand jury was scheduled to meet again on Friday to hear evidence.

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The Travis County Public Integrity Unit, the only such unit in the state, has brought high-profile cases that have earned the ire of state Republicans, including a money-laundering prosecution of former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. A higher state court last year reversed a conviction against Mr. DeLay, who has argued he is the victim of a political witch hunt. The case is on appeal.

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Some Texas legal experts said they considered it unlikely Mr. Perry would be prosecuted for what appears to be little more than strong-armed politics. They noted the case was so unusual that one had to go back a century to find a close precedent. In 1917, Texas Gov. James "Pa" Ferguson was impeached for various alleged offenses, including that he improperly withheld funding from the University of Texas because he found certain professors objectionable.



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