Rick Perry Faces Unusual Criminal Probe in Texas

Texas Gov. Rick Perry at a ceremony Tuesday at a General Motors assembly plant in Arlington, Texas. Associated Press

Grand Jury Weighs Whether Governor Crossed Line by Vetoing Funds for a Prosecutorial Unit

By Nathan Koppel, WSJ
May 15, 2014 7:30 p.m. ET

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. Travis County includes Austin, the state capital. "The person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the public's confidence," he said at the time of his veto.

The watchdog group, Texans for Public Justice, claimed that Mr. Perry's actions likely constituted coercion and bribery. Its complaint first went to Ms. Lehmberg, who recused herself, citing conflicts of interest. Then San Antonio state judge Bert Richardson, a Republican appointed last year to review the complaint, assigned the matter to a special prosecutor.

(More here.)