Tag: political corruption
Bill Barr

US Attorney Broke Justice Department Policy In Absentee Ballot Probe

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica

When the Justice Department recently publicized an ongoing investigation into potentially improperly discarded Trump ballots, critics accused it of violating long-standing agency policy against interfering in an election.

But the unusual decision to publicly detail the Pennsylvania case may also have run afoul of guidelines that Attorney General William Barr himself issued to federal prosecutors this year, according to a memo obtained by ProPublica.

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Rick Perry’s Lawyers File Second Request For Case Dismissal

Rick Perry’s Lawyers File Second Request For Case Dismissal

By Tony Plohetski, Austin American-Statesman

AUSTIN, Texas — Attorneys for Gov. Rick Perry, indicted last month on charges related to his veto threat of money for the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, have filed another request for a judge to throw out the case.

The motion to dismiss the indictment filed Monday makes many of the same claims as a previously filed writ of habeas corpus and largely cites “Constitutional grounds.”

The petitions contend the “Texas Constitution imposes no limits on the governor’s right and duty to veto; he exercises unbounded discretion in exercising his veto power, subject only to the Legislature’s right to override that veto,” among many other claims.

They also contend that the prosecution threatens to violate Constitutional separation of powers and said that Perry, in vetoing the money, was acting in his legislative capacity.

“Nothing in the Texas Constitution or law permits the judicial department to scrutinize Governor Perry’s legal decision,” the Monday filing said.

Prosecutor Michael McCrum does not yet have a deadline to respond to the motions.

Perry’s next court hearing is Oct. 13.

A Travis County grand jury Aug. 15 indicted the governor on charges of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public official arising from his threat last year to District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign or lose $7.5 million in funding to the state’s Public Integrity Unit after her DWI arrest.

Lehmberg did not resign, and Perry vetoed the money last June.

KVUE News contributed to this report.

AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan

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