Former Texas governor and two-time presidential hopeful Rick Perry has been cleared of a first-degree felony charge, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday. The charge for abuse of official capacity under Texas Penal Code Sec. It agreed with the former governor that the case violated the separation of powers mandate of the state constitution by seeking to curtail his veto authority.
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The state’s criminal court of appeals determined the statute that outlaws abuse of power by Texas governors did not apply to this case.
A smirking Perry then extended his victory lap by swinging by Austin food stand Sandy’s Hamburgers for a frozen custard, the same dessert he tweeted a picture of himself eating after he was booked at the Travis County Courthouse in August 2014. That’s a decision that special prosecutor Michael McCrum has called “horrendous”, arguing that the court has made a special exemption for Perry.
Perry spoke at the headquarters of an influential Texas conservative think tank, which has previously named its downtown balcony the “Gov. Rick Perry Liberty Balcony”. “This was a political witch-hunt crafted by Texas Democrats in Travis County in an attempt to derail [Perry’s] presidential bid”, Mechler said. A second felony charge prompted by the veto threat was tossed out by a lower appeals court last July.
Tony Buzbee, Perry’s lead lawyer, was pleased with the ruling.
“This decision is based on who Perry is rather than what he did. It changes law for past decades and offers no laws for future courts to follow”, he said. He conceded to reporters in Austin on Wednesday that the indictments hurt his candidacy but didn’t dwell on the impact, and said he would veto the same funding again if given the chance. But his latest bid for the White House failed to gain traction, especially during a summer in which attention-grabbing businessman Donald Trump shot to the top of polls – trailed by another Texan, U.S. Sen. He said in September that the indictment – which he blamed on the “drunk DA” – had a “corrosive” effect on his presidential campaign’s fundraising.
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Perry, Texas’s longest-serving governor, was indicted in 2014 for allegedly trying to coerce an elected official into quitting and misusing state funds, charges that could’ve kept him in prison for life if he’d been convicted.
