Texas Gov. Rick Perry is not going down without a fight. On Friday, Perry was indicted on two felony counts of coercion and official oppression by a public servant (punishable by up to 99 years in prison). The charges stem from Perry’s veto of $7.5 million in state funding for the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg (a Democrat) was arrested for drunk driving in 2013, leading Perry to say she was unfit for office. Unless Lehmberg resigned, Perry said at the time, he would veto the funding. When Lehmberg refused, Perry went through with the veto. "The fact of this case conclude that the governor's veto was lawful, appropriate, and well within the authority of the office of governor," Perry’s private attorney David Botsford said. "This action, which violates the separation of power outlined in the Texas Constitution, is nothing more than an effort to weaken the Constitutional authority of the office of Texas governor, and sets a dangerous precedent by allowing a grand jury to punish the exercise of a lawsuit and constitutional authority afforded to the governor." Perry will now have to turn himself in to Travis County jail and have a mugshot taken.
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