A Texas court on Wednesday dismissed an indictment against former Gov. Rick Perry alleging an abuse of official power.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals tossed out the abuse-of-power felony charge, the Associated Press reported. The charge was a result of Perry’s decision to threaten and carry out a veto of state funding for a group of public corruption prosecutors in 2013. Some argued that the threat was intended to force a local Democratic prosecutor to resign after a drunken driving conviction.
The highest criminal court in Texas decided in a 6-2 ruling that courts cannot restrict veto power and that prosecuting a veto "violates separations of powers." A second felony charge prompted by the veto threat was tossed out by a lower appeals court last July.
Perry’s lawyer Tony Buzbee said that the former Texas governor and two-time Republican presidential candidate was satisfied that the charges had been dismissed. Buzbee said that it was a "shame that it took that long to get something as weak and misguided as this to be dismissed."
"It was a bunch of foolishness from the beginning. I feel bad for him because he was put through this for no reason," Buzbee stated.
Perry, the longest-serving governor in the history of Texas, left office in January 2015, five months before launching a bid for president. He dropped out of the presidential race in September.