The two counts against Perry are that he “misused government property” and engaged in the “coercion” of a public servant. This makes it sound like he used the $7.5 million of vetoed funds to buy a vacation house and blackmailed Lehmberg into indicting people on his whim.
He, of course, did nothing of the kind. The indictment collapses under the slightest scrutiny. As legal blogger Eugene Volokh points out, of the first count, Texas law requires that the official be in possession of the misused funds. Perry never controlled the funds he vetoed. As for the second count, Volokh points to an appeals-court decision that held that “coercion of a lawful act by a threat of lawful action is protected free expression.”
The Travis County special prosecutor must think he’s witnessing the political equivalent of an episode of The Sopranos every time he hears news that the president of the United States has made a “veto threat.”
It’s hard to believe that anyone thinks that these charges will stand up in court. But that’s not the point. The indictment is an undisguised attempt to wound Perry, to create bad headlines, to distract him. On cue, Texas Democrats absurdly called on Perry to resign. The indictment itself is, in short, a naked abuse of power.
The Travis County district attorney’s office is infamous for this kind of thing. Lehmberg’s predecessor, Ronnie Earle, launched failed prosecutions of Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison and Tom DeLay. These acts were as blatantly partisan and as audaciously substanceless as the indictment of Rick Perry.
Forget vetoing funding for this office. If there were any justice, it would be shuttered and razed.
