Rick Perry: Abuse of Power Indictment Is Abuse of Power

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said today that the indictment against him was an "outrageous" abuse of power and vowed to fight it. "This indictment amounts to nothing more than abuse of power and I cannot and will not allow that to happen," Perry said at a news conference a day after a grand jury indicted the Republican on two felony counts of abuse of power for making good on a veto threat. The possible 2016 presidential hopeful is dismissing the charges as nakedly political.

The indictments are related to Perry vetoing funding for a Travis County unit investigating public corruption last year because the Democratic official heading the office refused to resign after being convicted of drunken driving. The investigative unit is based in Austin, a heavily Democratic city where the grand jury was seated. The rest of Texas is heavily Republican. Perry is the first Texas governor since 1917 to be indicted. (More Rick Perry stories.)