No Basis to Quash Perry Indictment, Prosecutors Say
Gov. Rick Perry has no legal right to receive a transcript of what witnesses told the grand jury that indicted him, prosecutors told a judge Monday.
"Texas courts have permitted the veil of grand jury secrecy to be pierced in only a few instances," special prosecutor Mike McCrum and David M. Gonzalez argued in a brief. "Defendant Perry has not established the particularized need that is required."
The response to Perry's earlier demand for a transcript came in one of two briefs prosecutors filed on the cusp of a pre-trial hearing Thursday. In a separate filing, prosecutors asked Visiting Judge Bert Richardson to deny Perry's request to dismiss the indictment entirely.
Perry is charged with abusing his official power by threatening to veto $7.5 million in state funds for the state's public integrity unit unless Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, stepped down following a 2013 drunken driving conviction. The Travis County DA's office oversees the public integrity unit. Lehmberg refused to resign, and Perry vetoed the money.
Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2014/11/03/prosecutors-ask-judge-deny-perry-challenges/