Gov. Rick Perry’s attorney, David Botsford, met with special prosecutor Mike McCrum in the chambers of Visiting Judge Bert Richardson today to discuss the August 15 indictment of the governor. Richardson appointed McCrum to investigate Perry’s veto, and McCrum led the grand jury in indicting the governor.
The Texas Tribune reports that Botsford informed the judge that he will file a challenge to the indictment on August 29. Botsford said that the challenge will be based on the First Amendment — Perry’s right to free speech — and his constitutional veto power.
As things stand, Perry has been indicted by a grand jury, which included at least one partisan Democratic Party activist, for telling the people of Texas what he intended to do, and then carrying out the action he described. We live in strange times when transparency and standing by your word, in order to remove a prosecutor who was guilty of drunk driving, have become indictable offenses.
On Thursday, Travis County Judge Julie Kocurek raised the stakes in the case, threatening Perry for — again — speaking, and invited anyone in the county to file another complaint against him which could open up yet another grand jury investigation. Heavily Democrat Travis County has no shortage of people who might file such a complaint just to harass the Republican governor. Texans for Public Justice, the Soros-funded group that filed the original complaint, exists for that very purpose.
The prosecutor says that he doesn’t expect Gov. Perry to go to trial on the August 15 indictment until next year. That would drag the case into the time Perry might be running for the GOP presidential nomination for the 2016 election.
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