There’s a backstory that you folks from foreign states don’t know. It goes like this.
The Travis County District Attorney is in charge of prosecuting public integrity in the state of Texas. If a public official anywhere in the state commits a crime, the Travis County DA can prosecute it. An example of this would be Tom DeLay. Since it should not fall solely on the tax burden of the good people of Travis County, funding the public integrity unit is funded by the state of Texas.
The current Travis County DA, Rosemary Lehmberg, caught herself a DWI early last year. She admitted guilt and spent 45 days in jail, paid a fine and had her law license suspended for 90 days – a punishment much tougher than any other first time DWI offender. Lehmberg is a Democrat. If she were to resign, Governor Rick Perry would appoint her successor. The last damn thing this state needs is a Republican government and a Republican making them behave. Cahooting would become our official state pastime.
Lehmberg refused to resign. The Republicans tried to make her by suing in civil court to have her removed. They lost.
Now is when it gets really good. Governor Rick Perry threatened her. Last summer, Rick announced that either Lehmberg step down or he would veto funds to keep the public integrity unity open. I’m gonna remind you that this was on the heels of accusations that the Lt. Governor of Texas, a Republican, falsified a time stamp during the Wendy Davis filibuster.
Since Perry got beat in court under the rule of law, he took the fight to the street by the rule of bully. She stood firm. And, as threatened, Rick Perry vetoed $2.7 million to keep the public integrity unit open.
Hell yeah, that’s coercion. The Travis County DA’s office recused themselves from getting involved in this so the neighboring Williamson County DA’s office (which is run by a Republican) appointed a special prosecutor to see if Rick Perry violated the law. The special prosecutor, a man named Michael McCrum, has worked for both Democrats and Republican. Okay, seven months later, brings us to today.
Stopping short of saying he thinks a crime was committed, a special prosecutor said he is troubled by the actions of Gov. Rick Perry in carrying out a threat last year to withhold state funding from Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg’s office unless she resigned after a DWI charge.
“I cannot elaborate on what exactly is concerning me, but I can tell you I am very concerned about certain aspects of what happened here,” San Antonio attorney Michael McCrum said in an interview this week with the American-Statesman and KVUE-TV. Asked if his concerns pointed specifically at Perry or his staff, McCrum said, “Yes.”
Oh, yeah. They will convene a grand jury the middle of this month.
Anybody want to go to the trial with me?
What’s next for Rick? Dancing With the Felons?
Can you help us out?
For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.
We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
