The Rick Perry boomlet is coming

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The Rick Perry boomlet is coming

POSTED AT 12:41 PM ON JANUARY 26, 2015 BY NOAH ROTHMAN

The race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 is well underway. In the press, establishment-friendly candidates like Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, and even Chris Christie have garnered the most attention. Among conservatives, first-time candidates like Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, and Rand Paul generate the most enthusiasm. In the frenzy, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry seems all but forgotten.

 

On paper, this makes little sense. Perry served three terms as governor of the nation’s second largest state, which also happens to be the geographic heart of the conservative movement. Both on the stump and in more intimate settings, Perry regularly wows crowds of Republican primary voters.“Rick Perry followed with a powerful and energetic speech that fired up the crowd once again,” read Ed’s impression of Perry’s speech to Iowa Freedom Summit attendees this weekend. “He hammered Obama on immigration, and then shouted down protesters by promising them more of the fight for the next two years.”

 

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Rick Perry Indictment Stands—Again

 

Posted by Amy Miller ▪ Wednesday, January 28, 2015 at 6:55pm

Another day, another roadblock

 

Rick Perry may have had a successful political weekend in Iowa, but when it comes to legal issues, the former Texas Governor’s troubles are just as real as ever.

 

Last year, a grand jury indicted Governor Perry on two felony counts over abuse of power allegations; since then, Perry and his legal team have made several futile attempts to convince a judge to dismiss the indictment—and they just lost another round, meaning that for the time being, the indictment stands, and the criminal case will be allowed to drag on.

 

From the Austin-American Statesman:

The ruling by Judge Bert Richardson, a San Antonio Republican,http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/01/rick-perry-indictment-stands-again/

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For Rick Perry, the Clock is the Enemy

Posted by Amy Miller Wednesday, September 10, 2014 at 2:30pm

 

The clock is ticking in the race to the White House, and the indictment lingers.

Defense attorneys have filed a motion to quash and dismiss the indictment of Rick Perry, once again bringing into focus the divisive nature of the charges filed against the Texas Governor.

 

According to the motion, Perry’s lawyers are banking on the illegal nature of the indictment itself, saying that “[c]ontinued prosecution of Governor Perry on the current indictment is unprecedented, insupportable and simply impermissible. This attempt to criminalize the political process should not be tolerated by this Court or any Texas court. Otherwise, overzealous prosecutors will be given free reign to use the grand jury process to chill political decisions by Texas’ Governors.”

 

This is the second of two separate sets of motions aimed at getting the case thrown out. The first, a writ of habeas corpus, was filed in late August.

 

The concern here isn’t that the outcome itself of the trial will affect Perry’s chances at the presidency, but that the legal process will overlap with prime campaign time.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/09/gov-perry-clock-is-the-enemy/

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1/28/2015

Judge Refuses to Toss Rick Perry Indictment

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:53 am

What a shame.

 

A Texas judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a felony abuse-of-power case against former Gov. Rick Perry on constitutional grounds, ruling that criminal charges against the possible 2016 presidential candidate should stand.

 

In 44 pages of decisions and orders, District Judge Bert Richardson, who like Perry is a Republican, rejected calls from Perry’s pricy defense team to toss the case because its client was acting within his rights as chief executive of America’s second-most populous state when he publicly threatened, then carried out, a 2013 veto of state funding for public corruption prosecutors.

Richardson wrote that, “Texas law clearly precludes a trial court from making a pretrial determination regarding the constitutionality of a state penal or criminal procedural statute as the statue applies to a particular defendant.”

 

This prosecution is a joke. I’ll try to find the judge’s order tonight and comment on it.

http://patterico.com/2015/01/28/judge-refuses-to-toss-rick-perry-indictment/

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8/16/2014

Jonathan Chait Is Correct: “This Indictment Of Rick Perry Is Unbelievably Ridiculous” (With Bonus Detailed Legal Analysis!)

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 3:09 pm

Jonathan Chait — lefty leftist Jonathan Chait, I say! — admits today that the indictment of Rick Perry is absurd. Don’t believe me? In a post titled This Indictment Of Rick Perry Is Unbelievably Ridiculous (yes, that is really the title), Chait says:

 

They say a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich, and this always seemed like hyperbole, until Friday night a Texas grand jury announced an indictment of governor Rick Perry. The “crime” for which Perry faces a sentence of 5 to 99 years in prison is vetoing funding for a state agency. The conventions of reporting — which treat the fact of an indictment as the primary news, and its merit as a secondary analytic question — make it difficult for people reading the news to grasp just how farfetched this indictment is.

. . . .

The theory behind the indictment is flexible enough that almost any kind of political conflict could be defined as a “misuse” of power or “coercion” of one’s opponents. To describe the indictment as “frivolous” gives it far more credence than it deserves. Perry may not be much smarter than a ham sandwich, but he is exactly as guilty as one.

I often find Chait irritating, but I appreciate his honesty and spot-on analysis here

http://patterico.com/2014/08/16/jonathan-chait-is-correct-this-indictment-of-rick-perry-is-unbelievably-ridiculous-with-bonus-detailed-legal-analysis/

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1/28/2015

Analysis of the Judge’s Refusal to Dismiss the Rick Perry Indictment

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:00 pm

 

I said this morning that I would try to comment on the judge’s order regarding the Rick Perry indictment. Here you go. I’m going to keep this short, but in order to do so, I am assuming your familiarity with this detailed post of mine from August 2014 in which I pulled apart the indictment piece by piece. (Thanks to DRJ for providing a link to the order, by the way.)

 

The order is not crazy on its face, though the prosecution is.

 

The judge first makes the point that settled Texas law holds that “as applied” constitutional challenges cannot be raised before trial. That may be, but I don’t understand the logic, given that specific evidence was presented to the grand jury and the indictments were based on that evidence. Why can’t Perry argue that the statute is unconstitutional as applied to the facts as presented to the grand jury? I don’t understand why he can’t.

http://patterico.com/2015/01/28/analysis-of-the-judges-refusal-to-dismiss-the-rick-perry-indictment/

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Ready to Tell His Story Again, Rick Perry Eyes 2016 Reboot

By Scott Conroy - January 30, 2015

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Rick Perry doesn't care if you think he's dumb. In fact, he kind of likes it that way.

 

Without blushing, the former governor of Texas and likely 2016 Republican presidential candidate will tell you all about how he'd gone to Texas A&M wanting to be a veterinarian until a run-in with organic chemistry left him with a bruised ego and an academic change of course.

 

In phys ed class, he managed only a gentleman's "C."

 

"All I wanted to do was get out and fly airplanes, so anything over a 2.0 was gravy," as he puts it now.

 

Rather than lashing out at a media narrative that has at times turned him into a caricature, Perry embraces his reputation for not being the sharpest knife in the Republican Party’s jam-packed drawer of White House aspirants.

 

Why? It’s because he knows there is only one way for him to go in the public’s esteem: Up. ​http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/01/30/ready_to_tell_his_story_again_rick_perry_eyes_2016_reboot_125438.html