Rick Perry calls charges partisan politics and says, “I intend to win”

The governor promised to fight the charges and concluded brief remarks by bluntly saying, “I intend to win.”

During a news conference at the Capitol broadcast live on national TV, Perry blamed partisan politics for the indictment and focused, in part, on the behavior of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, whose drunken driving arrest last year prompted him to seek her resignation.

“We don’t settle political differences with indictments in this country,” Perry said.

Perry faces charges of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant, which together carry maximum sentences of 109 years in prison and $20,000 in fines. He has not yet turned himself in at the Travis County Jail but is expected to do so in the next several days, when he will be fingerprinted and photographed.

Travis County grand jurors delivered the indictment 14 months after Perry said he would withhold a $7.5 million, two-year state allotment to Lehmberg’s office unless she stepped down.

Lehmberg did not resign, and Perry carried out that threat, saying he would not grant the appropriation because Lehmberg had lost the public’s confidence with her DWI arrest. Her blood alcohol level was 0.239, and while in jail, the district attorney was belligerent.

Travis County officials scrambled to make up for the loss in funding, which was earmarked for the state’s Public Integrity Unit, housed in Lehmberg’s office, and which investigates ethics complaints against state officials.

Meanwhile, a government watchdog group filed a criminal complaint against Perry alleging that he violated several state laws. That complaint led to the appointment of a special judge to oversee the matter and the naming of special prosecutor Michael McCrum to investigate.

Perry and his staff have said that his veto was allowed under the Texas constitution, and on Saturday, he reiterated that position.

“Just as I have following every Legislative session during my service as governor, I exercised this authority to veto funding for an office whose leadership had lost the public’s confidence by acting inappropriately and unethically,” Perry said. “I wholeheartedly and unequivocally stand behind my veto and will continue to defend this lawful action of my executive authority as governor.”

He said of Lehmberg: “… stopped for a DWI with a blood alcohol level almost three times (the legal limit), an individual who when booked in had to be restrained, was abusive to law enforcement, was kicking the door. I think Americans and Texans who have seen this agree with me — that is not an individual who is heading up an office that we can afford to fund.”

McCrum, a San Antonio lawyer, told the American-Statesman on Saturday that Perry has a “distorted perspective” at the suggestion that the indictment is motivated by politics.

“I feel sorry for the governor. … He should pay attention to the charges,” McCrum said. “The charges are very serious. There is evidence to support them, and there is nothing political about what happened in my investigation or the grand jury’s deliberations.”

Lehmberg has declined to comment on the charges.

Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Will Hailer waited outside the governor’s news conference Saturday and told reporters that Perry “has violated the public trust” and needs to resign.

“People want to see a change in leadership in Texas,” he said, adding, “The governor should not only be a leader of the state, but a leader of his party and step down.”

Asked if Lehmberg also should quit, Hailer said: “The situation is completely different. … The governor went on a political witch hunt.” He added that Lehmberg “has faced the music and her punishment for what she did on that day.”

For his part, Perry said he will push for the charges to be brought to a speedy resolution.

“I will explore every legal avenue to expedite this matter,” he said. “I am confident I will prevail.”

American-Statesman Staff, KVUE News